CRt-571 


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Report  of  the  C 
Conf  Pam  #277 


R  E  F  O  R  T 


COMMITTEE  ON^  CLAIMS, 

On  memorial  and  accompanying  pipers  of  M-ijor  Gaspnr  Tochman. 


The  Committee  on  Claims,  to  whom  was  referred  the  memorial  of 
Major  Caspar  Tochman,  formerly  of  the  Polish  artnj,  praying  relief 
from  losses  incurred  by  him  in  raising  troops  for  the  Confederate 
States  military  service,  beg  leave  to  report  that  they  have  had  the 
same  under  consideration,  and  recommend  the  adoption  of  the  follow- 
ing preamble  and  resolutions,  to-wit  : 

Joint  resolution  of  thinks  to,  and  for  the  relief  of.  Major  Gaspar  Toch- 
man^  formerly  of  tfie  Polish  army. 

Whereas,  Gaspar  Tochman,  formerly  majot  in  the  Polish^rmy,  in 
the  early  part  of  the  summer  of  1861  was  authorized  by  the  then 
Secretary  of  War,  Hon.  L.  P.  Walker,  to  raise  certain  troops  for  the 
Confederate  States  military  service,  which  troops,  by  the  terras  of 
said  authority,  were  to  be  organized  into  a  brigade :  And  wherea.';, 
said  Major  Gaspar  Tochman,  acting  under  said  authority,  did  actually 
raise  a  considerable  number  of  troops,  to-wit :  seventeen  hundred  men, 
exclusive  of  officers,  of  whom  fourteen  hundred  and  fifteen  were  of 
foreign  birth :  And  whereas,  it  appears  that  the  said  Secretary,  in  the 
authority  aforesaid,  did  not  intend  to  promise  said  Major  Gaapar 
Tochman  the  commaad  of  the  brigade  aforesaid  :  And  whereas,  the 
troops  raised  by  said  Major  Gaspar  Tochman  were  actually  received 
into  the  Confederate  States  military  service  in  two  regiments,  the  com- 
mand of  one  of  which  was  tendered  to  Major  Gaspar  Tochman  as  colonel : 
And  whereas,  said  Major  Gaspar  Tochman,  considering  that  he  had 
been  authorized  to  raise  a  brigade,  under  an  agreement  that  he  was  to 
have  the  command  thereof  as  brigadier,  and  having  so  represented  to 
those  associated  with  him  in  raising  said  troops,  and  considering 
that  he  could  not,  consistently  with  his  honor  and  his  representations 
to  his  associates,  accept  a  less  command  than  that  of  brijradier,  did 
decline  to  receive  the  said  tender  of  a  colonelcy  :  And  whereas,  it 
appears  that  the  said  Major  Gaspar  Tochman  acted   throughout  in 


2 

entire  accordance  with  the  highest  integrity  and  honor:  And  whereas, 
this  Congress  highly  appreciates  said  Major  Gaspar  Tochman's  devo- 
tion to  the  cause  of  freedom  and  Iiis  active  and  useful  exertions  in 
behalf  of  the  cause  of  the  Confederate  States  of  America :  And 
whereas,  it  appears  that  said  Major  Gaspar  Tochman  was  at  consider- 
able expense  in  raising  said  troops,  to-wit:  the  sum  of  seven  thousand 
five  hundred  and  seventy-five  dollars,  of  which  he  has  been  reimbursed 
only  the  sum  of  one  thousand  one  hundred  and  five  dollars  and  three 
cents ;  therefore — 

1.  Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  Congress  and  of  the  Confederate 
States  of  America  are  due,  and  are  hereby  cordially  tendered  to  Major 
Gaspar  Tochman,  formerly  of  the  Polish  army,  for  his  zealous  and 
useful  efforts  in  behalf  of  Southern  independence. 

2,  Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  be,  and  he  is  hereby, 
directed  to  pay  to  Major  Gaspar  Tochman,  out  of  any  money  in  the 
Treasury  not  otherwise  appropriated,  the  sum  of  seven  thousand  five 
hundred  and  tt^enty-five  dollars,  this  being  the  "amount  he  expended 
in  raising  troops  for  the  Confederate  States  military  service,  less  the 
sum  of  one  thousand  one  hundred  and  five  dollars  and  three  cents 
heretofore  paid  him. 

Respectfully  submitted,  r. 

JAMES  FARROW, 

From  Committee. 


CASE  OF  GENERAL  TOCHMAN. 


GENERAL  TOCHMAN  TO   HON.   W.  N.  H.  SMITH. 

Richmond,  Va.,  May  14,  1864. 
Hon.  W.  N.  H.  Smith, 

Chairman  of  Com.  on  Claims  of  House  of  ReprcsentGiives,  C.  S.  C. : 

Dear  Sir  :  Being  informed  that  the  members  of  the  Committee, 
over  ■which  you  preside,  manifested  their  desire  to  have  collected  some 
copies  of  my  memorial,  presented  to  the  preceding  Congress,  to  obtain 
relief  for  the  grievances  arising  from  the  Executive  having  taken  from 
me  the  command  of  the  Polish  brigade,  and  dissolved  it  without  cause, 
I  have  distributed  amongst  them,  personally,  or  left  at  their  respective 
residences,  the  few  copies  thereof  I  had  preserved  for  my  own  use, 
together  with  the  copies  of  such  papers  as  were,  in  the  course  of 
investigation,  printed  by  order  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  former  Congress. 

But  I  respectfully  submit,  for  the  consideration  of  your  Committee,, 
that  the  old  memorial  and  the  papers  accompanying  it  do  not  contain 
the  evidence  and  the  legal  points  elicited  by  the  proceedings  of  the 
Committee  on  Claims  of  the  former  Congress,  which  accompany  and 
make  part  of  the  new  memorial  presented  to  this  Congress  and  refer- 
red to  your  Committee,  for  they  have  not  been  printed  yet — the  Com- 
mittee on  Claims  of  the  former  Congress  having  not  reported  them  for 
want  of  time,  as  stated  in  the  new  memorial. 

As  this  evidence  and  legal  points  are  material  in  the  case  before 
your  Committee,  as  they  have  not  been  laid  before  the  members  of 
the  former  Congress,  and  as  the  newly  electeil  members  of  this  Congress 
are  wholly  unacquainted  with  the  merits  of  the  case  before  your  Com- 
mittee, and  there  is  no  possibility  of  procuring  for  them  the  requisite 
number  of  copies  of  the  old  memorial,  I  beg  your  Committee  that  the 
new  memorial  now  before  you,  which  is  very  short  and  concise,  cover- 
ing scarcely  one-sixth  part  of  the  length  of  the  old  memorial  and  the 
accompanying  papers,  may  be  printed,  either  before  your  Committee 
takes  final  action  upon  it  or  conjointly  with  their  report  on  the  case. 

The  case  being  of  the  utmost  importance  to  one  who  spared  no 
sacrifice  for  the  cause  of  the  Confederate  States,  and,  as  it  seems  t(^ 
me,  that  the  Constitution  would  require  in  this  case  a  vote  of 
two-thirds  of  the  members  (it  involving  the  appropriation  of  money,) 
it  is,  therefore,  hoped  that  your  Committee  will  relieve  my  anxiety 
in  this  respect  by  recommending  to  the  House  that  the  new  me.aoriaL 
may  be  ordered  to  be  printed. 

With  the  highest  respect,  I  have  the  honor,  sir,  to  be, 

Your  most  obedient  servant, 

G.  TOCHMAN. 


GENERAL  TOCHMAN  TO  HON.  JAMES  FARROW. 

Richmond,  Va.,  May  19,  1864. 

lion.  James  Farrow, 

Member  of  Congress  : 

Dear  Sir  ;  It  -was  only  after  I  left  you,  last  evening,  that  I  learned 
that  the  resolution  of  the  Senate  to  adjourn  on  the  last  of  this  month 
has  been  concurred  in  by  the  House.  It  will  be,  of  course,  impossible 
7WW  to  have  my  case  carried  through  during  this  session,  unless  this 
resolution  is  rescinded.  My  poor  country  must,  then,  dispense  again 
with  my  services  for  many  months,  for  I  cannot  leave  this  new  world 
for  the  old  before  I  am  put  right  as  to  my  character  and  integrity  by 
some  legislative  action.  Under  these,  so  distressing  to  me,  circum- 
stances, I  appeal  to  your  sense  of  justice,  and  respectfully  beg  you  to 
report  and  urge  the  Committee  that,  whatever  may  be  their  conclusion 
they  shall  arrive  at  in  my  case,  it  should  be  reported  to  the  House 
before  the  adjournment  of  Congress,  to  have  it  printed,  together  with 
my  memorial,  and  put  on  its  Calendar  for  action  at  the  next  session. 
I  respectfully  beg  them  and  you  to  accede  to  this,  my  request,  and  to 
accept  the  assurance  of  the  highest  consideration,  with  which 
I  have  the  honor,  sir,  to  be,  your  most  obedient  servant, 

G.  TOCHMAN. 


> 


MEMORIAL. 


To  the  Honorable  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Con- 
federate States  of  America,  in    Congress  assembled  : 

This  memorial  is  respectfully  presented  to  the  honorable  the  Con- 
gress, to  obtain  relief  and  redress  in  a  case  which,  though  it  seem- 
ingly appears  to  be  of  a  private  character,  essentially  involves  the 
public  plighted  faith,  its  foreign  policy,  and  the  national  honor,  to 
which  I  a^eal. 

In  1861,  when  the  hostilities  of  this  war  commenced,  I  left  Wash- 
ington, D.  C,  where  I  then  resided,  repaired  to  Montgomery, 
Alabama,  and  tendered  ray  services  to  the  Confederate  States,  which 
his  Excellency  the  President  accepted  by  endorsing  on  the  bundle  of 
my  papers,  being  on  file  in  the  Department  of  War:  '^  Appointed 
Colonel,  May   11,    1861." 

Subsequently,  the  Secretary  of  War,  under  the  special  instructions 
of  the  President,  stipulate!  with  me  for  raising  a  regiment  of  troops, 
to  be  designated  "  the  Polish  regiment  "  And,  when  this  proposition 
was  accepted,  the  following  authority,  addressed  to  me  as  the  Major, 
(which  rank'l  held  in  the  Polish  army  during  the  war  of  1830-'31,) 
was  issued  and  handed  to  me  personally  by  the  Secretary  : 

**  Confederate  States  of  America,  War  Department, 
''  BIontgomery,May  20,  1861. 

"To  Major  Gaspar  Tochman: 

*'  Sir  :  You  are  authorized  to  raise  ten  companies,  to  be  composed 
of  persons  of  foreign  birth,  and  to  enlist  for  the  war,  with  the  privi- 
lege, on  the  part  of  the  privates,  to  withdraw  at  the  end  of  three 
years.  Or,  should  you  fnd  it  practicable,  jou.  are  authorized  to  raise 
twenty  companies,  which  would  be  organized  into  a  brigade.  Such 
officers  of  the  army  as  may  be  necessary  will  bo  detailed  at  such 
points  within  the  Confederacy  as  you  may  indicate,  to  enlist  the  men. 
Or  you  are  authorized  to  raise  two  regiments  for  the  war,  to  be 
received  with  the  officers  as  far  as  may  be  acceptable  to  the  Confederate 
Government. 

"  Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

«L.  P.  Walker, 
"  Secretary  of  War.^^ 

This  enlarged  authority  was  accepted  with  the  mutual  understand- 
ing that  I  had  to  raise  these  foreign  troopa/or  my  own  command,  ani 


that  my  regular  commission  -was  to  be  issued  and  handed  to  me,  after 
I  raised  my  troops,  in  the  rank  corresponding  to  their  number. 

The  following  letter,  addressed  to  the  Secretary  of  War  the  next 
day  after  the  date  of  that  authority,  proves  these. facts,  either  directly 
or  by  legal  inductions  : 

"Montgomery,  Alabama,  May  21,  .1861. 

''Hon.  L.  r.  Walker, 

*'  Secretary  of  War  : 

*'  Sir  :  Acknowledging  the  receipt  of.  your  order,  bearing  date  of 
"May  20,  186  I,"  which  authorizes  me  to  raise  ten  or  tAventy  com- 
panies, to  be  composed  of  persons  of  foreign  birth,  enlisted  for  the 
war — with  the  privilege  on  the  part  of  the  privates  to  withdraw  at 
the  end  of  three  years — I  have  the  honor,  most  respectfully,  to 
submit : 

"  1.  That  the  Hon.  A.  Stephens,  Vice  President,  in  the  last  inter- 
view with  me,  stated  that  I  might  probably  be  allowed  to  enlist  in  my 
"  foreign  regiment  or  regiments,"'  both  natives  and  foreigners  ;  and, 
as  there  are  many  natives  who  have  already  offered  to  serve  under  my 
command,  I  beg  you  to  remove  the  restriction  confining  me  to  enlist- 
ing only  the  persons  of  foreign  birth, 

"  2.  Your  order,  under  the  regulations  of  the  recruiting  service, 
must  necessarily  be  construed .  as  directing  me  to  superintend  the 
recruiting  of  the  companies  to  be  hereafter  formed  into  regiments  and 
a  brigade;  but  it  leaves  no  evidence  on  tJie  record  of  the  Department 
of  War  that  the  regiment^or  regiments  so  raised  by  me,  when  com'::leted 
and  mustered  into  service,  loill  have  to  remain  and  shall  remain  under  my 
comraand,  with  such  officers  as  may  assist  me  in  this  undertaking.  Such 
assurance  in  my  hands  would,  it  is  submitted^  help  me  in  raising  the  men. 

"  3.  The  Adjutant  General  stated  to  me  yesterday  that  it  would 
be  impossible  for  him,  at  this  time,  to  detail  the  number  of  officers  of 
the  Confederate  States  army  required  for  my  recruiting  service  ;  he 
said  that  he  could  not  detail  now  more  than  two  or  three  officers.  I 
•would  beg  you,  then,  to  advise  with  the  President  and  authorize  me 
to  employ  special  agents,  to  be  sent  where  I  may  deem  proper  with 
the  instructions,  and  for  the  purpose  of  procuring  and  sendingmen  to 
the  places  of  rendezvous,  where  I  may  locate  these  two  or  three  officers 
of  the  Confederate  States  army,  to  receive  the  enlistments  of  the 
;recruita. 

*'  This  plan  of  recruiting  would  of  course  require  a  special  fund; 
'but,  if  authorized,  it  would  enable  me  to  raise  the  requisite  number 
■of  men  in  a  very  short  time,  and  at  less  than  one- half  of  the  expense 
"'jyhich  the  usual  mode  of  recruiting  requires. 

*'  I  have  the  honor,  sir,  to  be  your  most  obedient  servant, 

"G.  Tochman." 

The  requisite  authority  to  accept  the  services  of  such  natives  as 
itnight  desire  to  be  under  my  command  was  granted  to  me  by  the 
Secretary  of  War  verbally.     The  other  parts  of  my  requests  were  not 


answered ;  but  these  requests  are  brieuy  eniiorsei  bj  tbe  Secretary 
himself,  or  his  assistant,  on  the  back  of  this  letter,  which  is  on  file  in 
the  Department  of  War,  and  has  been  recorded  in  the  record  book  of 
that  department ;  it  constitutes,  therefore,  a  legal  evidence  as  to  all 
the  facts  contained  in  that  letter,  and  as  to  ail  such  as  are  deducible 
from  its  contents. 

Relying  upon  the  faith  of  this  arrangement,  I  establisbed  my  head- 
quarters in  New  Orleans,  Louisiana,  and  issued  a  proclamation  to  the 
foreigners,  defining  the  principles  which  induced  me  to  take  part  in  this 
war,  with  the  South,  and  calling  upon  them  to  unite  with  me  in  defcaco 
of  the  Confederate  States.      {Exhibit  A'b.  1.) 

This  proclamation  was  responded  to  with  such  promptness  that  in 
about  six  weeks  from  its'  date  I  raised  and  reported,  ready  for  the  field, 
two  regiments,  under  the  designation  of  the  "First  and  Second  regi- 
ments of  the  Polish  hrigad--,  C.  S.  P.  Army,''  seventeen  hundred  men 
strong  in  the  ranks,  cxchsive  of  ofjlcers  ;  in  which  number  there  were 
fourteen  hundred  and  fifteen  foreigners  or  ''persons  of  foreign  birik'^ 
in  the  rank§,  and/our  amongst  the  officers.     [Exhibit  No.  2.) 

I  will  not  tax  the  time  of  the  honorable  the  Congress,  with  the 
recital  of  the  difficulties  I  experienced  on  the  part  of  the  selfish  poli- 
ticians, who  were  opposed  to  my  undertaking,  at  New  Orleans,  when 
I  was  raising  my  troops,  and  after  I  raised  them,  when  I  came  to 
Richmond  to  obtain  ray  orders  and  regular  commissions  for  my  officers 
and  myself;  for  I  am  sure,  had  they  foreseen  that  this  war  would  as- 
sume the  proportions  to  which  it  has^expandcd,  their  patriotism  would 
have  predominated  over  their  short-sighted  policy  in  destroying,  in 
its  bud,  an  organization  which  was  best  calculated  to  gain  and  secure 
to  the  cause  of  the  Confederate  States,  the  physical  and  moral  aid  cf  • 
foreigners,  both  here  and  abroad. 

The  gist  "of  the  grievances  I  submit  to  the  consideration  of  this 
honorable  the  Congress,  is,  then,  only  that  the  command  of  the  troops 
I  raised  was  denied  to  me ;  a  colonelcy  of  only  one  of  my  regiments 
was  offered  me,  and  I  was  requested  to  leave  the  other  regiment,  in  my 
camp  of  instruction,  at  the  disposal  of  the  President. 

As  a  submission  to  these  propositions  after  1  had  raised  my  brigade 
of  which  each  officer  and  soldier  considered  me  to  be  his  brigadier 
general,  would  have  subjected  me  to  the  suspicion  of  being  a  preten- 
der, by  assuming  to  raise  that  brigade  without  authority,  or,  that  I 
lost  its  command  by  reason  of  the  commission  of  some  misdemeanor, 
a  suspicion,  in  either  case,  more  severe  in  its  moral  effect  to  a  veteran 
soldier  than  would  be  the  loss  of  life,  there  remained,  therefore,  no 
other  alternative  for  me  but  the  rejection  of  these  propositions,  and 
the  subsequent,  thus  forced  upon  mo,  withdrawal  from  serving  that 
caur^e,  to  defend  which,  1  have  sacrificed  ray  property  left  in  the 
United  States;  abandoned  there  my  legal  profession  and  other  pros- 
pects, and  exposed  my  wife,  a  Polish  lady  by  birth,  to  a  long  impris- 
onment in  Washington,  D.  C,  where,  though  now  free,  she  is  forced 
to  remain  still,  separated  from  me,  which  the  evidence  published  on 
page  first  of  the  memorial,  presented  to  the  preceding  Congress,  in 
January,  1863,  proves. 


8 

The  following  is  the  order  by  ■whicli  my  brigade  was  dissolved:, 

**  Adjutant  and  Inspector  General's  Office, 
Richmond,  August  24,  18G1. 
*'  Special  Order  ) 

No.  133.        J 

#  «  #  *  «  « 

*'  XIII.  The  designation  of  the  '  First  Polish  regiment'  will  here- 
after be  the  tidrteenth  regiment  of  Louisiana  volunteers,  Confederate 
troops.         .         *  #  *  *  * 

*'  By  command  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  * 

"  John  Withers, 
"  Assistant  Adjutant  GeneraW^ 

The  second  Polish  regiment  of  my  brigade  was,  by  a  similar  order, 
designated  the  third  battalion,  and  subsequently  the  fifteenth  regiment 
of  Louisiana  volunteers,  Confederate  troops. 

It  is  respectfully  submitted,  that  there  is  no  law  in  existence,  that 
vould  warrant  such  change  of  the  original  organization  of  any  troops 
of  the  provisional  army  of  the  Confederate  States.  It  was  therefore 
alleged  by  the  Executive,  in  excuse  ior  this  unauthorized  measure,  that 
I  had  to  raise  my  troops  at  the  north  or  abroad,  and  when  it  was 
shown  that  this  allegation  could  not  stand  the  test  of  the  interpretation 
of  the  authority  I  accepted,  and  that  the  official  correspondence  I  held 
with  the  Secretary  of  War  daring  the  organization  of  my  troops,  re- 
futes it  too,  I  was  informed  tjiat  the  Secretary  of  War  had  no 
authority  to  promise  me  the  commission  of  brigadier. 

As  this  last  assertion  comes  from  the  President  himself,  its  truth 
.cannot  be  doubted;  but  neither  the  moral  nor  the  forensic  law  war- 
rants punishing  me  by  withholding  my  regular  commission,  because 
of  the  Secretary's  fault  in  exceeding  his  authority,  when  I  had  stip- 
ulated Avith  him  bona  fide,  and  knew  nothing  of  the  extent  of  the  in- 
structions the  President  gave  him.  It  is  submitted  that  were  the  rule 
so  unjust  to  prevail  as  a  guide  of  the  Executive  actions,  it  would  sub- 
vert the  whole  fabric  of  any  Government  whalsoever. 

The  following  is  my  official  correspondence  with  the  Secretary  of 
War,  to  which  I  have  just  alluded.  I  respectfully  beg  attention  to  it 
of  the  honorable  the  Congress,  for  it  corroborates  what  I  have  already 
stated  in  reference  to  my  agreement  with  the  Secretary  of  War,  and 
it  proves  that  he  knew  where  I  was  raising  my  troops,  and  that  I  was 
raising  them  for  my  own  command.  It  proves  also,  that  he  fully  and 
unequivocally  approved  it  all  by  the  responsive  dispatches  addressed 
to  me; 

"  TELEGRAPHIC  DISPATCHES. 

"  \st.  From  the  Secretary  of  War : 

**  Dated  Richmond,  June  19,  1861.  Received,  New  Orleans,  June 
19,  1861, o'clock, min.  M. 

"To  Colonel  Gaspar  Tochman: 

"  Our  supply  of  arms  is  so  limited,  that  you  h^d  better  not  under- 
take to  raise  exceeding  a  regiment.  L.  P.  Walker." 


2.  Answer  to  above,  by  telegraph. 

**  Headquarters  of  the  Polish  Brigabe,  C.  S.  Army, 
New  Orleans,  La.,  57,  St.  Charles  Street,  June  20,  1861. 

"  Hon.  L.  P.  Walker, 

"  Secretary  of  War,  Richmond,  Virginia  : 

**  Twenty  companies  are  already  raised,  uniformed  and  drilling 
here,  and  some  in  Mississippi  ;  seven  mustered  into  service  and 
encamped  at  Amite.  Six  "were  to  be  mustered  to-day,  and  the  rest 
on  Saturday.  Should  you  curtail  me  now  to  one  regiment,  it  would 
cause  a  good  deal  of  trouble,  loss  and  dissatisfaction.  The  confidence 
of  those  who  responded  to  my  proclamation  would  be  irretrievably  lost, 
and  the  favorable  reaction  amongst  the  foreigners,  which  the  announce- 
ment of  my  forming  the  Polish  brigade,  has  elicited  in  Missouri  and 
at  the  North,  would  be  checked.  Please  then,  advise  with  the  Presi- 
dent. I  will  keep  up  the  work  quietly  until  further  orders.  Should 
you  send  me  arms  immediately,  the  whole  brigade  would  take  the  field 
in  less  than  thirty  days. 

*'G.    TOCHMAN." 

3.  Secretary's  answer  to  the  above,  by  telegraph. 

*'  Dated  Richmond,  June  20,  1861.  Received,  New  Orleans,  June 
20,  1861. 

"  To  Colonel  G.  Tochman  : 

*'If  the  companies  are  raised,  of  course  I  shall  not  interfere.  Let 
them  be  mustered  into  service. 

"  L.  P.  Walker." 

**  4.    Telegraphic  dispatch  from  the  Secretary  of  War. 

*'  Dated  Richmond,  June  24,  1861.  Received,  New  Orleans,  June 
24,  1861. 

•'  To  Colonel  Gaspar  Tochman  : 

**  Volunteers  furnish  their  own  clothing,  getting  commutation 
money  in  lieu,  twenty-one  dollars,  the  first  pay-roll,  and  twenty-one 
dollars  every  succeeding  six  months. 

*'  L.  P.  Walker." 

5ih.   Telegraphic  dispatch. 

*'  1.  Headquarters  of  the  Polish  Brigade  of  the  C.  S.  A., 
*'New  Orleans,  La.,  June  27,  1861. 

''  To  Hon.  L.  P.  Walker, 

Secretary  of  War,  Richmond  : 

**  Can  I  accept  for  the  brigade,  a  company  of  artillery?  It  is  fully 
equipped,  and  if  accepted  by  me,  would  have  no  claim  against  the 
Government  for  its  equipment. 

"G.  Tochman." 


10 

Zth.  Secretary's  answer  to  the  above,  by  telegraph. 

•'  Dated  Richmond,  June  27,  1861.     Received,  New  Orleans,  Juno 
27,  1801, ,  o'clock, min.  M. 

**To  Colonel  G.  Tociim4n: 

"  If  the  artillery  company  is  fully  equipped  with  guns  for  complete 
battery,  you  can  receive  it  into  service. 

"  L.  P.   Walker." 


When  all  the  respectful  and  conciliatory  requests  and  rcmon 
strances  which  I  addressed  dirdctly  to  the  Executive,  failed  to  obtain 
me  that  reasonable  regard  and  due  justice,  to  which,  if  not  the  na- 
tional, the  true  policy  and  interest,  then,  at  least,  my  voluntary  sacrifices 
and  tried  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  Confederate  States,  should 
entitle  me,  I  presented  a  memorial  to  the  preceding  Congress,  pray- 
ing for  such  relief  as  the  nature  of  the  case  and  their  wisdom  and 
national  honor  may  dictate. 

The  Committee  on  Military  Affairs  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, to  which  that,  memorial  was  referred,  reported  upon  it,  unani- 
mously, on  tho  23d  of  April,  1863,  concluding  as  follows  : 

"  Your  Committee,  fully  appreciating  the  patriotic  zeal  and  self- 
sacrificing  devotion  to  our  holy  cause,  manifest  throughout  the  whole 
conduct  of  memonalist,  whilst  considering  the  Court  of  Claims  proviiled 
for  by  the  Constitution  as  the  appropriate  tribunal  for  the  investiga- 
tion and  adjustment  of  pecuniary  grievances,- recommend  tho  adoption 
of  the  following  resolutions,  as  a  just  tribute  to  and  Vindication  of 
the  character  and  integrity  of  the  intentions  of  memorialist : 

"  RESOLUTION. 

"  Whereas,  The  Secretary  of  War,  on  the  20th  day  of  May,  1881, 
authorized  Major  Gaspar  Tochman,  late  of  the  Polish  army,  etc., 
etc.,  to  raise  ten  companies,  to  be  composed  of  persons  of  foreign 
birth,  and  to  enlist  for  the.  war,  with  the  privilege,  on  the  part  of 
the  privates,  to  withdraw  at  the  end  of  three  years;  or,  should  he 
find  it  practicable,  to  raise  twenty  companies,  which  would  be  organ- 
ized into  a  brigade  ;  or,  to  raise  two  regiments  for  the  war,  to  be 
received,  with  the  officers,  as  iar  as  should  be  acceptable  to  tlie  Con- 
federate Government;  and  whereas,  said  Major  Gaspar  Tochman, 
acting  under  said  authority,  did  actually  raise  for  the  war  one  thou- 
sand seven  hundred  men,  exclusive  of  officers;  and  whereas,  ic 
appears  from  the  letter  of  the  President  addressed  to  said  Major 
Gaspar  Tochman,  on  the  25tli  of  October,  1861,  that  the  Secretary  of 
War  was  not  authorized  by  the  President  to  promise  him  the  commis- 
sion of  a  brigadier  general,  but  to  tender  to  him  the  appointment  of  a 
colonelcy  to  one  of  the  regiments  to  be  raised  ;  it  is  nevertheless  due 
to  the  honor  and  character  of  said  Major  Gaspar  Tochman,  (which  it 


11 

• 

is  believed  the  President  lias  no  design  to  impeach,)  to  admit  his 
asseition,  that  the  intention  of  the  President  was  not  known  to  hiin 
when  he  accepted  the  authority  to  raise,  and  did  raise,  troops  under  it. 
And  it  is  therefore — 

**  Resolved,  That  in  the  history  of  Major  Caspar  Tochman's  efforts 
to  raise  troops  under  said  authority,  and  identify  himself  with  the 
provisional  army  of  the  Confederate  States,  Congress  finds  the  most 
praiseworthy  devotion  to  sound  principles  and  free  government,  and 
nothing  in  the  least  prejudicial  to  his  honor  and  character  as  a  soldier 
and  gentleman." 

The  constitutional  Court  of  Claims,  which  the  Committee  on  Mili- 
tary Affairs,  in  the  foregoing  report,  considers  as  the  appro- 
priate tribunal  for  settling  my  ''  pecuniary  grievances,"  not  being 
yet  created,  and  events  having  occurred  which  require  ray  speedy 
return  to  Poland,  1  addressed  a  letter  to  the  President,  on  the  10th 
of  September,  1863,  humbly  requesting  his  Excellency  either  to  give 
an  order  for  pa3'raent  to  me  of  a  brigadier's  salary  and  commutation 
for  three  years,  (my  troops  raised  for  this  period  being  in  the  actual 
service  of  the  Confederate  States,)  or  to  recommend  to  Congress  that 
my  personal  expenses  incurred  in  raising  those  troops,  etc.,  making 
$5,925  in  gold,  and  $!,60()  in  the  currency  of  the  Confederate  States, 
be  refunded  to  me  in  such  currency  as  I  bore  and  paid  them.  (Exhibit 
No.  3.) 

Unable  to  obtain  even  this  ?ncre  act  of  justice,  as  the  subsequent 
correspondence  with  the  Secretary  of  War,  (Exhibits  No.  -1,  5,  6,  7,) 
to  whom  the  President  referred  that  letter,  fully  shows,  I  brought 
this  demand,  too,  before  Uhe  preceding  Congress;  which,  being 
referred  to  the  Committee  on  Claims  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
that  committee  "  returned"  the  following,  unanimous,  joint  resolution  : 

*'  Joint  resolution  for  tJie  relief  of  General  G.  Tochman. 

*'  The  Congress  of  the  Confederate  States  of  America  do  resolve,  That 
the  Secretary  of  War  is  hereby  authorized  to  audit  and  pay  the  claims 
of  General  Tochman  for  money  expended  by  him  in  raising  two  regi- 
ments of  Louisiana  troops. 

«'  Returned  by  Mr.  Clayton." 

The  pressure  of  more  important  public  business  did  not  allow  that 
committee  to  bring  up  this  resolution  for  action  before  the  preceding 
Congress.  It  has  only  filed  it  in  the  clerk's  office  of  the  House 
Representatives. 

The  resolutions  reported  by  the  Committee  on  Military  Affairs  were 
not  acted  upon  by  that  Congress  from  a  similar  reason. 

In  this  position  of  the  case  I  now  address  this  honorable  Congress, 
begging  them  respectfully,  that  such  redress  be  granted  to  me  as 
would  protect  my  character,  so  unjustly  wronged  by  the  Executive, 
and  as  would  relieve  me  from  losses,  to  which  this,  undeserved,  with- 
holding of  my  regular  commission  has  exposed  me.  These  losses  are 
fully  set  forth,  and  proved,  in  Exhibits  No.  3,  8,  9. 


1? 

But,  in  reference  to  the  joint  resolution,  as  it  is  dfawn  and  recom- 
mended by  the  Committee  on  Claims  of  the  proceeding  Congress,  I 
beg  leave  to  submit  for  the  consideration  of  this  honorable  Congress: 

1st.  Ihe  "  legal  propositions  "  (Exhibit  No.  S)  filed  with  that  com- 
mittee show  that  I  have  a  perfect  right  to  claiiji  the  salary  and  com- 
mutation of  brigadier  general  for  three  years,  and  that  I  offered  to 
vmive  this  right  under  the  condition  that  my  personal  expenses,  incur- 
red by  the  undertaking  to  raise  my  troops,  will  bo  refunded  to  me  in 
such  currency  as  I  disbursed  them,  and  upon  acceptance  of  the 
secondary  evidence,  from  consideration  that  I  have  been  debarred  from 
collecting  the  primary  by  an  action  of  the  Government  which  could' 
not  have  been  foreseen.  The  committee  required  of  me  this  secondary 
evidence  in  an  affidavit,  which  was  made  and  filed  with  the  committee, 
on  the  29th  of  January,  1884,  (Exhibit  No  9.)  It  is  submitted,  that 
by  directing  the  Secretary  of  War  to  audit  my  claim,  as  that  com- 
mittee does  in  the  draught  of  the  returned  resolution,  their  acceptance 
of  the  affidavit  as  a  sufficient  evidence  to  substantiate  that  claim 
would  be  defeated,  and  I  cannot  bring  any  better  evidence  in  its  place, 
from  .reasons  fully  explained  in  the  *' legal  propositions,"  (Exhibit 
No.  8.)  Unless,  then,  the  Secretary  ©f  War  is  directed,  peremptorily, 
to  pay  my  claim  as  it  is  proved  by  the  affidavit,  and  in  such  currency 
as  I  bore  these  expenses,  I  claim,  and  beg  Congress  to  order,  that 
payment  be  made  to  me  of  the  salary  and  commutation  of  brigadier 
general  for  three  years,  as  constituting  that  legal  consideration  which 
I  have  a  perfect  right  to  demand,  the  President's  withholding  my  reg- 
ular commission  notwithstanding,  as  is  proved  in  the  said  "  legal 
propositions."     (Exhibit  No.  8.) 

2d.  This  joint  resolution  is  at  variance  with  the  evidence  on  record, 
in  so  far  as  it  directs  the  Secretary  of  War  to  pay  my  expenses  "for 
raising  two  regiments  of  Louisiana  troops.''''  I  have  never  raised  such 
troops.  The  muster-rolls,  being  on  file  in  the  office  of  the  Adjutant 
and  Inspector  General  of  the  Confederate  States  army,  prove  that  the 
troops  I  raised  were  mustered  in  the  service  of  the  Confederate  States, 
under  the  designation  of  the  "first  and  second  regiments  of  the  Polish 
brigade.  Confederate  States  provisional  army.''''  And  the  order  of  the 
Adjutant  and  Inspector  General,  inserted  on  page  eight  of  this  memo- 
rial, proves  that  these  troops  were  turned  over  to  the  State  of  Louisi- 
ana by  changing  their  original  designation.  As  there  is  no  law  in  exist- 
ence that  would  warrant  this  turnings  over  to  the  State  of  Louisiana 
of  my  brigade,  this  fact  is  material  in  my  case.  I  beg,  therefore,  to 
have  it  corrected  according  to  the  evidence  of  the  record. 

In  conclusion,  I  beg  the  honorable  the  Congress  that  mj  memo- 
rial presented  to  the  preceding  Congress,  in  January,  1863,  and  all 
the  papers  printed  by  the  subsequent  orders  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives of  that  Congress,  be  referred  to  and  considered  as  parts  of 
this  memorial. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  of  the  honorable  the  Congress, 

The  most  obedient  servant, 

G.  TOCHMAN. 

Richmond,  Va.,  May  2,  1861. 


{EXHIBIT  Xo.  1.) 

Frofn  the  New  Orleans  True  Delta  of  the  Zd  of  June,  1861. 

[This  proclamation  was  published  in  all  the  newspapers  of  New 
Orleans,  and  widely  republished  in  other  southern  papers,  including 
the  Whig  and  Dispatch  of  Richmond.] 

TO  THE  REFUGEES    IN    AMERICA  FROM  FOREIGN  LAND3. 

FelloiO'Countrymcn  of  the  Old  World: 

Whether  driven  from  the  homes  of  our  birth  by  the  oppressors  of 
our  native  land,  or  revolting  from  the  tyrannic  despotism  and  the 
pretended  constitutional  monarchies  of  Europe,  we  have  sought  and 
found  new  homes  and  safe  asylums  in  these  far-famed,  prosperous 
and  hitherto  happy  States  of  the  American  Union,  founded  upon  the 
sacred  principles  of  self-government  and  State  sovereignty,  which  for 
eighty  years  have  been  the  bulwark  and  custodian  of  th%  personal 
liberties  of  the  American  people  North,  South,  East  and  West,  as 
well  as  of  ourselves,  the  sons  of  their  adoption.  The  Constitution 
which  once  united  these  sovereign  States  neither  knew  a  northern  nor 
a  southern  section  of  this  great  country.  It  only  knew  its  creators, 
the  sovereign  States,  to  be  equal  and  supreme  in  their  political 
co-partnership — associated  together  for  the  specific  purposes  of  com- 
mon defence  and  external  protection. 

This  magnificent  temple  of  human  liberty  was  established  and 
cemented  by  the  precious  blood  of  revolutionary  sires,  who  were  as 
well  Americans  as  Frenchmen,  Germans,  Poles  and  Irishmen.  Its 
structure,  indeed,  belongs  to  the  American  people,  but  its  vital 
element,  the  sacred  principles  of  s^f-government  which  underlie  it, 
as  well  as  that  of  constitutional  liberty,  is  the  property  of  all  man- 
kind. That  flag  which  was  adopted  by  those  sovereign  States  within 
the  period  of  fifty  years  was  designed  to  be  the  emblem  of  no  other 
union.  It  is  no  longer  its  consecrated  aegis.  It  was  not  the  banner 
of  our  revolutionary  sires,  and  it  is  not  now  the  standard  of  human 
liberty,  but  the  symbol  of  a  despotic  tyranny.  Those  great  principles 
of  self-government — constitutional  freedom  and  State  sovereignty — 
upon  which  alone  the  individual  liberty  of  man  could  have  been  per- 
petuated, have  been  gradually  overturned  by  the  selfish  and  unprin- 
cipled agency  of  northern  politicians,  who,  for  their  own  purposes, 
have  inaugurated  a  false  policy,  utterly  adverse  to  the  principles  of 
the  Constitution,  and  tending  directly  to  the  consolidation  of  all 
power  in  the  Federal  Government,  thus  establishing  a  despotism  pre- 
cisely similar  to  those  of  Europe,  which  we  had  so  indignantly  aban- 
doned. The  artful  agitation  of  the  African  slavery  question  was  only 
an  instrument  cunningly  devised  and  employed  for  sinister  objects  by 


4  14 

the  political  schemers  of  the  North,  who,  for  long  years  past,  have 
been  undermining  and  working  out  the  destruction  of  that  once 
glorious  Unien  of  sovereign  States.  Every  sincere  patriot,  every 
lover  of  human  liberty,  must  hope  that  the  people  of  the  North  may 
yet  discover,  in  time  to  arrest  the  liwful  calamity  of  internecine  strife 
which  their  mad  rulers  have  commenced  ;  that  the  inconsiderate  sup- 
port Avhich  they  furnish  to  those  rulers  who  have  so  insanely  rejected 
every  amicable  proposition  for  settling  these  questions  of  State  sover- 
eignty, must  ultimately  end  in  the  destruction  of  their  own  liberties, 
without  the  possibility  of  ever  restoring  that  Union  they  have  thus 
ruthlessly  rent  asunder.  Before,  however,  this  hope  or  expectation 
can  become  a  reality,  and  can  possibly  effect  a  termination  of  this 
nefarious  invasion  through  the  prevalence  of  rational  and  Christian 
principles,  it  is  our  sacred  duty,  enuring  alike  from  our  oath  cf  alle- 
giance to  support  the  Constitution  in  its  purity,  as  well  as  from 
our  obligations  to  the  cause  of  human  liberty,  to  take  sides  with  those 
States  which,  finding  it  impossible  to  secure  their  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  State  sovereignty  within  that  Union,  have  seceded  from  its 
perverted  association.  Guided  by  these  principles  and  these  consid- 
erations, which  I  earnestly  and  sincerely  believe  and  feel  to  be  right 
and  true,  I  have  offered  my  services  to  the  Confederate  States  of 
America  and  have  accepted  a  commission  under  their  authority,  to 
raise,  for  the  period  of  the  war,  twenty  companies  of  soldiers,  to  be 
formed  int^  a  brigade,  or  to  raise  two  regiments,  to  be  received  into 
their  service,  with  the  proper  complement  of  officers. 

Respectfully  submitting  for  your  consideration  and  approval  the 
foregoing  views,  which  constitute  the  principles  of  my  deternaination 
and  my  action,  I  now  most  earnestly  invoke  and  call  upon  you,  my 
fellow-exiles  from  the  despotism  of  Europe,  to  unite  with  me  in  defence 
of  those  cherished  principles  of  self-government,  constitutional  liberty 
and  State  sovereignty,  which  the  glorious  sires  of  the  first  Araei-ican 
Revolution  confided  to  the  special  guardianship  of  our  American 
fellow-citizens,  as  well  as  to  the  descendants  of  the  liberty-loving 
foreigners  whose  ancestors  ming.led  their  blood  with  the  blood  of  those 
illustrious  Americans  in  the  establishment  of  those  great  principles. 
It  is  a  legacy  bequeathed  to  us  all  alike.  Eighty  years  of  its  peaceful 
enjo^^nient  has  proved  its  priceless  value.  It  should  be  upheld  with 
all  our  devotion,  until  the  people  of  the  North  shall  discover,  and 
understand,  the  selfish  machinations  of  their  unprincipled  political 
rulers  ;  and,  finally,  comprehending  their  own  delusion,  shall  at  length 
return  repentant  to  the  glorious  temple  of  worship  of  Washington 
and  LiiFnyette,  of  Kosciusko,  Pulaski  and  De  Kalb,  and  all  their 
illustrious  compeers  of  revolutionary  glory. 

Your  affectionate  and  liberty-lo.ving  fellow  exile, 

Gaspar   TOCIIMAN, 
Major  of  the  Polish  Army,  in  1831. 

May  24,  ISGI. 


15 

EXHIBIT  No.  2. 

Richmond,  Va.,  October  G,  18G2, 
137  Spotswood  Hotel. 

Colonel  Zebulon  York,  of  the  \4fh  Louisiana  Begiment : 
Colonel  F.  Schaller,  of  the  22d  Mississippi  Regiment  : 
Nolo  in  Richmond f  Va. 

Gentlemen:  Taking  advantage  of  your  temporary  sojourn  in  this 
city,  I  beg  leave  to  address  you  to  the  following  purpose  ;  Last  year, 
when  the  controversy  arose  as  to  the  const^ruction  of  the  authority 
under  which  I  raised,  in  Louisiana,  my  brigade,  denominated  "  the 
Polish  brigade,"  Colonel  Sulakowski,  (who  is  now  in  New  Orleans,) 
and  many  other  officers  of  that  brigade,  were  willing  and  desirous  to 
intercede,  by  petitioning  the  President  of  the  Confederate  States,  to 
sustain  me  in  its  command.  I  declined,  peremptorily,  their  generous 
offer,  resting  my  right  to  the  command  upon  the  stipulated  authority, 
as  it  was  understood  by  me  and  the  Secretary  of  War,  Hon.  L.  P. 
Walker,  at  the  time  when  it  was  issued  by  him  and  accepted  by  me. 
Greatly  as  I  regret  that  that  controversy  resulted  in  my  withdrawing 
from  the  service,  and  thus  deprived  me  of  the  honor  and  privilege  cf 
sharing  the  glory  and  dangers  of  this  war  with  you  and  others,  who 
responded  to  my  proclamation  and  placed  themselves  under  my  com- 
mand, I  deem  it,  even  in  this  state  of  my  case,  inconsistent  with  self- 
respect,  either  to  seek  or  to  accept  the  intercession  of  others  to  secure 
me  the  enjoyment  of  that  right,  which,  under  the  fair  interpretation 
of  my  authority,  I  had  acquired  from  the  moment  I  raised  the  brig- 
ade. But  I  owe  it  not  less  to  myself  than  to  truth  and  honest  dealing, 
to  refute  certain  surmises,  recently  communicated  to  me,  even  though 
they  have  not  the  least  bearing  upon  the  fixed,  legal  and  natural 
rules  of  interpretation,  by  which  alone  my  right  to  the  command, 
acquired  under  that  authority,  should  and  must  be  tested.  To  attain 
this  end,  therefore,  I  address  you,  as  the  field  officers  of  my  brigade 
at  the  time  of  its  organization,  requesting  you  to  testify  to  the  facts 
within  your  personal  knowledge,  by  answering  the  following  queries  : 

1.  Had,  or  had  not,  my  former  position  of  Major  in  the  Polish 
array,  and  the  proclamation,  of  which  a  copy  is  herein  annexed,*  any 
influence  upon  you  and  your  friends,  to  determine  your  and  their 
enlistment  into  my  brigade  ? 

2.  As  the  muster-rolls  do  not  show  the  nativity  of  the  rank  and  file 
of  the  brigade,  please  to  state  what  proportion  of  natives  and  for- 
eigners was  in  it  before  the  regiments  were  ordered  to  leave  camp 
«'  Pulaski"  to  take  the  field  ? 

3.  In  what  manner  did  I  raise  my  brigade;  was  it  done  by  simply 
mustering  into  the  service  of  the  Confederate  States  ready  companies, 
raised  and  organized  without  ray  official  aid  and  assistance,  or  were 
they  raised  and^  organized  pursuant  to  the  arrangements,  with  my 
official  aid,  and  under  the  instructions  communicated  and  enforced 


♦Exhibit  No.  l,of  this  memorial. 


16 

under  my  orders.  And  what  effect,  if  any,  these  arrangements  and 
orders  had  in  raising  and  organizing  that  brigade  ?  Please  to  return 
me  your  answer  upon  this  letter. 

With  great  respect,  I  have  the  honor  to  be, 

Your  most  obedient  servant, 

G.    TOCHMAX. 


EiciiMOND,  Va.,  Oct.  12,  18^2. 

Sir — Your  communication,  bearing  date  October  6,  1862,  request- 
ing answers  to  certain  questions  propounded,  relative  to  the  late 
*'  Polish  Brigade  "  under  your  command,  now  constituting  the  four- 
teenth and  fifteenth  Louisiana  regiments  of  infantry,  has  been  received, 
and  we,  reciprocating  the  sentiments  expressed'in  its  opening,  respect- 
•fuUy  return  the  following  reply,  of  facts  within  our  knowledge.  To 
(question  first : 

Most  certainly  did  your  reputation,  as  a  patriot  and  soldier,  induce 
those  who  joined  your  brigade,  to  prefer  that  organization  to  many 
others,  then  in  course  of  formation  within  the  limits  of  the  State  of 
Louisiana.  The  proclamation  which  you  had  issued,  could  not  but 
stimulate  that  desire,  and  hence  the  speedy  and  successful  formation 
of  your  brigade.  To  cite  individual  cases,  Colonel,  then  Major  l^ork, 
enlisted  from  the  desire  to  be  commanded  by  a  tried  and  experienced 
soldier,  in  spite  of  superior  advantages  offered  to  him  in  other  organi- 
zations ;  and  Colonel,  then  Major  Schaller,  preferred  to  enlist  under 
your  banner  from  similar  motives,  although  having  in  project  a  higher 
position  in  the  service  of  the  State  of  North  Carolina,  in  which  he 
then  was  engaged. 

To  (Question  Second.  To  this  question,  we  unhesitatingly  reply,  that 
there  were  in  your  brigade,  at  the  time  of  leaving  Camp  Pulaski,  at 
least  five  foreigners  to  every  native  ;  that  is,  of  seventeen  hundred  in 
the  brigade,  fourteen  hundred  and  fifteen  were  foreigners,  and  but  two 
hundred  and  eighty-five  natives  ;  not,  however,  including  the  commis- 
sioned officers,  all"  of  whom  were  natives  of  Louisiana,  with  but  four 
exceptions  of  foreign  officers,  who  had  received  a  regular  military 
education,  and  had  served  in  European  armies. 

To  Question  Third.  We  do  not  know  by  what  means,  and  by  whom, 
the  first  two  companies  of  your  brigade  were  raised.*  Shortly  after 
these  companies  were  mustered  into  service,  you  arrived  in  New  Or- 
leans, established  the  headquarters  of  your  brigade  at  fifty-seven  St. 
Charles  street,  and  your  camp  of  organization  and  instruction  at 
Amite,  Parish  of  St.  Helena,  under  the  name  of  "Camp  Pulaski," 
some  fifty  miles  north   of  Ncav  Orleans.     Since  then,  the  raising  of 


*These  two  companies  were  raised  by  my  correspondent  and  agent,  V.  Sulalcow-k', 
subsequently  Colonel  of  the  first  regiment  of  loj  brigade.  They  -were  mustered  into 
the  service  of  the  C.  S.  by  Lieutenant  Phifer,  of  the  C.  S.  A.,  under  th-^  orders  of 
General  Cooper,  Adj.  and  Insp.  General,  C.  S.  A.,  issued  at  my  request,  filed  in  the 
War  Department,  May  24,  1861.  G.  Tochman. 


-      17 

your  troops,  antl  organizing  them  into  regimonts  and  n  brigade,  vras 
carried  on  directly  under  your  orders  and  command.  We  had  no  part . 
in  these  operations,  being  at  camp,  and  performing  there  the  duties 
assigned  to  U3,  respectively,  under  your  orders.  We  know,  however, 
iVom  personal  knowledge  and  observation,  that  there  were  numerous 
independent  companies  of  volunteers  raising,  and  already  raised, " 
which  had  no  definite  determination  v.hat  particular  organization  thev 
■should  join  ;  infhis  state  of  affairs  your  proclamation  appeared,  and 
immediately  a  number  of  persons,  interested  in  raising  and  organizing 
these  companies,  applied  to  you  to  be  received.  Some  two  or  three 
companies,  (among  which  that  of  Captain,  subsei|uently  IMajor,  now 
Colonel  York,)  fully  organized,  were  immediately  accepted  and  mus- 
tered into  service.  Several  were  skeleton  companies,  just  then  raid- 
ing, and  many  were  projected  to  be  raised  ;  with  all  such  you  made 
suitable  arrangementr-,  aided  the  proposed  officers,  in  your  ofKcial 
capacity,  i-n  r.iising  and  organir,ing  thera,  or  they  were  so  aided  by 
your  instructions,  and  then  mustered  into  service,  and  then  sent  to 
«amp.  Some  of  these  companies  ceuld  not  raise  the  requisite  quota 
of  men,  and  they  were  filled  by  your  orders  from  recruits,  enlisted  and 
mustered  singly  into  your  brigade.  To  show  the  elTect  of  your  labors, 
and  lost  the  impression  bo  conveyed  that  you  c:rperienced  but  little 
or  no  difSculty  i-ij.raising  your  brigade,  we  need  only  point  to  the  fact 
that  it  was  more  difficult  to  enlist  menfo-r  the  war,  than  for  one  year's 
service  only,  m  the  State  regiments  of  Louisiana,  many  of  which 
were  then  in  progress  of  organization.  Moreover,  the  State  compa- 
nies, as  soon  as  mustered  jnto  service,  were  splendidly  armed  and 
equipped,  thus  materi?Jly  aiding  their  discipline  and  organization  into 
regiments,  which  advantages  you  had  to  forego,  because  the  Confede- 
rate Provisional  Government  was  not  then  able  to  extend  the  same 
facilities  to  yourself  and  brigade. 

We  addressed  you  aB  our  brigadier  general,  in  the  private  and  ofn- 
^•ial  com^nunications,  during  the  organization  of  your  brigade.  We 
now  address  you  as  colonel,  commanding  the  brigade,  from  no  other 
motive  but  that,  in  our  opinion,  it  would  be  improper  for  us  to  antici- 
pate, in  this  official  answer,  the  decision  of  your  controversy  with  the 
"Jovernment.     The  enclosures  are  hero  returned. 

We  have  the  honor  to  remain,  most  respectfully, 

Your  oledient  servants, 

ZliUULON    Y^ORK, 

Colonel  Fourteenth  Louisiana  rcghncnt. 

V.     SCHAJXER, 

Caionel  of  the  Ttnty  Second  Mississippi  reghmni. 
To  Colonel  Gappar  Tochman, 

Commanding  tiie  late  '*  Polish  Brigade,'^  Richmo7id^  Va. 


18 
{EXniBIT   No.  3.) 

GENERAL  TOCHMAN'S    LETTER   TO  PRESIDENT  DAVI3. 


Max-Meadows,  Withe  County,  Va.,  ) 
SeptembA-  19,  1863.       \ 

To  His  Excellency,  Jefferson  Davis, 

President  of  the  Confederate  States  : 

Mr.  President  :  The  resolutions  adopted  and  recommended  to  Con- 
gress by  an  unanimous  vote  of  the  Committee  on  Military  Affairs  of 
the   House  of  Representatives,   Tvhich   are   on  the   Calender  of  that 
House,  for  its  action  at  the  next  session,  [Exhibit  A,*]  would  place  me 
right  as  to  my  position,  both  here  and  in  Europe  ;    for  no  caviller 
would  be  able  to  infer,  and  set  forth  against  me,  charges  of  imputa- 
tion derogatory  to  my  character,  when  they  prove  and   show  plainly 
that  your  Excellency  refused  me  the  regular  commission  to  command 
the  troops  I  raised,  from  no  other  motives  but  because  the  Secretary 
of  War,  Hon.  L.  P.  Walker,  in  stipulating  with  me  for  raising  those 
troops,  exceeded  the  power  you  invested  him  with.       But  I  submit, 
most  respectfully,  that  the  Court  of  Claims,  to  which  that  Committee 
leaves  the  settlement  of  my  '*  pecuniary  grievances,"  not  being  cre- 
ated yet,  it  would  take  at  least  a  year  or  two  to  recover,  through  its 
agency,  what  is  due  to  me.      At  this  juncture,   Mr.   President,  my 
native  country,  Poland,  calls  for  my  services.     And,  as  the  recovery  of 
my  pecuniary  claim,  before  my  departure  for  Europe,   might  enable 
me  to  render  her  some  signal  services,  may  I  not  hope  that  you  will 
be  pleased  to  take  proper  measures  that  this  claim   might  be  settled 
with  me,  without  referring  it  to  the  Court  of  Claims,  which  does  not 
yet  exist.     I  have  suffered  very  heavy  losses  in  the  property  left  at 
the  North,  in  the  abandonment  of  the  northern  clientel,  and  by  the  sep- 
aration from  my  family  for  more  than  two  years  and  a  half  already 
closing.     The  loss  of  the  fees,  in  a  single  case  of  the  heirs  of  General 
Kosciusko,  for  the  recovery  of  land  in  Ohio,  in  which   case  Senator 
Pugh,  of  that  State,  is  associated  with  me  as  counsel,  amounts  to  sev- 
eral thousand  dollars.      I  lay   no   claim   for   the   compensation  of  all 
these  losses,      I  consider  them  as  losses  resulting  from  the  ordinary 
course  of  the  war,  such  as  you,  and  other  loyal  citizens,  have  suffered, 
and  may  sufier,  by  its  incidents.     I  claim  only  to  have  the  right  to  re- 
cover   either  the  stipends  and   emoluments  of   brigadier,  for  three 
years,  it  being  the  period  for  which  I  raised  my  troops,  luhich  arc  in  the 
actual  service  o/  the  Confederate  States ;  or,   should  you  object  to  this 
mode  of  settling  with  me  this  account,  I  beg  you  to  recommend  to  Con- 
gress, that  my  actual  expenses  of  raising  those  troops,  and  of  living 
here  since  the  27th  of  April,  1861,  which  is  the  date  of  my  leaving 
Washington,  D.  C,  to  tender  you  my  services,  be  refunded  to  me,  with- 

*Iuserted  in  this  memorial  on  pages  10  and  11. 


19 

out  referring  them,  for  settlement,  to  the  court,  not  being  in  existence. 
Congress  would  not  refuse  such  recommendation,  for  there  are  many 
precedents  on  the  congressional  record  to  show  that  this  was  done  in 
cases  less  urgent,  less  meritorious,  and  less  equitable.  The  gross 
amount  of  these  expenses  is  %5,02o,  in  gold,  and  partly  in  Virginia 
and  Louisiana  currency,  when  it  was  at  par  with  the  gold  coin,  besides 
!$  1,600  in  currency  of  the  Confederate  States,  which  I  borrowed,  re- 
cently, for  my  support  here.  But  it  is  submitted  that  the  act  of  the 
Provisional  Congress,  No.  109,  approved  May  8,  186 1,  under  the 
authority  of  which  your  Secretary  of  War  stipulated  for  my  services, 
making  no  provision  for  refunding  such  expenses  for  raising  troops 
thereby  authorized  to  be  raised,  I  construed  its  intention  to  be  the 
usage  practised  by  all  other  nations  and  their  governments  in  similar 
emergencies,  which  is  :  that  those  military  men  (natives  or  foreigners) 
who,  in  case  of  war,  undertake  to  raise  troops  for  their  own  com- 
mands, in  lieu  of  their  expenses,  and  as  a  recompense  for  their  ser- 
vices, receive  commissions  in  ranks  correspoading  to  th-e  number  of 
troops  raised,  and  the  stipends  and  emoluments  attached,  by  law,  to 
their  commissions.  So  construing  the  act  of  Congress  under  which  I 
accepted  the  authority  to  raise  troops  for  my  own  command,  and  rely- 
ing, bona  Jjde,  upon  the  express  agreement  with  your  Secretary  of 
War,  that  I  would  command  all  the  troops  I  might  raise  under  that 
authority,  I  did  not  expect  to  have  ever  any  liquidation  with  the  Gov- 
ernment for  my  disbursements.  I  did  not  keep,  therefore,  any  ac- 
count of  those  disbursements,  and  it  is  now  impossible  for  me  to  make 
any  specification  of  their  items,  or  to  support  them  by  the  vouchers. 
I  can  only  prove,  by  my  oaths,  that  their  gross  amount,  above  stated,, 
is  trne  and  correct,  which  oath  I  am  prepared  to  take  whenever  re- 
quired. And,  if  required,  I  submit  to  proving  the  loan  contracted 
for  my  support,  by  the  testimony  of  the  creditors. 

Whichever  mode  of  settling  with  me  this  account  your  Excellency- 
may  be  pleased  to  adopt,  the  sum  of  $1,105  33  in  the  Confederate 
States  currency  should  be  deducted,  whicti  was  paid  me  in  October, 
1861,  under  the  orders  of  the  Hon.  J.  P.  Benjamin,  then  acting  Sec- 
retary of  War,  as  colonel's  stipends,  due  for  three  months  and  thirteen, 
days'  services — including  some  expenses  of  the  postage  and  telegraphic 
dispatches.  It  is  hoped,  however,  that  should  you  prefer  to  refund 
me  the  expenses,  they  will  be  refunded  in  the  same  currency  I  bore 
and  paid  them. 

^Ir.  President,  allow  me  yet  to  submit,  that  but  for  the  unfortunato 
misunderstanding  which  arose,  as  it  appears  now,  from  the  Secretary 
of  War  having  exceeded  his  authority,  my  services  might  have  become 
very  valuable  to  the  cause  of  the  Confederate  States.  The  fact  that^ 
in  less  than  six  weeks,  upon  my  proclamation^  1,415  foreigners,  exclu- 
sive of  the  natives,  enlisted  into  my  brigade,  certainly  authorizes  an 
inference  that  I  could  raise  a  great  number  of  foreign  troops  had  I 
been  left  in  command  of  that  brigade,  which,  moreover,  by  the  mere 
power  of  influence,  might  have  checked,  considerably,  the  enlistment 
of  foreigners  into  the  Federal  army,  and  might  have  gained  the  Con- 
federate States  this  public  opinion   abroad,  they   so  need,   to   obtain 


20 

recognition  of  their  independence.  But  whatever  would  have  be&ti 
the  result  of  the  expectations  which  my  first  success,  herein  alluded 
to,  authorizes  me  to.  infer,  the  enclosed,  [Exhibit  B,]  which  is  the  orig- 
inal charter  incorporating,  in  the  State  of  New 'York,  a  *' Polish- 
Sclavonian  Literary  Association,"  composed,  as  the. charter  shows,  of 
the  most  pronanent  and  powerful  leaders  of  all  political  parties  of  the 
Northern  section  of  the  old  Union,  of  which  association  I  am  the 
founder,  and  was  one  of  the  vice-presidents  since  its  organization, 
will  disclose  to  your  Excellency  at  what  sacrifices  of  the  material  in- 
terests of  Poland,  I  have  separated  rnyself  from  the  North  to  take  part, 
in  this  war,  with  the  South;  may  I  not  then  hope,  that  at  least,  in 
consideration  of  this  great  sacrifice  of  the  material  interests  of  Poland, 
for  the  exclusive  benefit  of  the  Confederate  States,  the  simple  justice 
of  settling  with  me  this  claim,  would  be  granted  to  enable  me  to  serve, 
lit  this  crisis,  the  sacred  cause  of  my  native  land  ? 

Begging  for  the  preservation  of  the  charter,  until  I  call  for  it  at 
the  Priva,t3  Secretary's  office, 

I  have  the  honor  to  be, 

Your  Excellency's  most  obedient  servant, 

G.    TaCHMAN. 


[B.] 

-'An  Ad  to  incorporate  the  Polish  Sdavonian  Literary  Association,  in 
the  State  cf  Neio  York,  Passed  March  26,  18-16,  hy  a  two-third 
s)ote. 

-'  The  People  of   the    State  of   New    York,  represented    in  Senate  and 
Assembly  do  enact  as  fulloivs  : 

"Section  1.  Major  Gaspar  Tochman,  of  Poland,  now  counsellor 
-at  law  of  the  bar  of  this  State,  and  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  and  associated  with  him  lion.  William  II.  Seward,  also 
counsellor  at  Jaw,  formerly  Governor  ;  George  Folsome,  Senator  ; 
Samuel  J.  Tildea,,  member  , of  the  Assembly  of  this  State;  John 
Davis,  of  Massachusetts,  William  Upham  and  Samuel  S.  Phelps,  of 
Vermont,  John  McPh-erson  Berrien,  of  Georgia,  William  S.  Archer, 
of  Virginia,  Albert  C.  Greene  and  James  F.  Simmons,  of  Rhode 
Island,  Jacob  W.  Miller  and  William  L.  Dayton,  of  New  Jersey, 
Oeorge  Evans,  of  Maine,  Willie  P.  Mangtim,  of  North  Carolina, 
fleverdy  Johnson  and  James  A.  Pearce,  of  Maryland,  Thomas  Cor- 
win.  of  Ohio,  John  J.  Crittenden,  of  Kentucky,  Spencer  Jarnagin, 
of  Tennessee,  Senators  of  the  United  States  in  Congress;  John 
DeMott,  Albert  Smith,  Elias  B.  Hanes,  Erastus  D.  Culver,  Washing- 
ton. Hunt,  Hugh  White,  Abner  Lewis,  B.  P.  Herrick,  Horaco 
Wheaton,  of  this  State,  Andrew  Trumbo,  John  Mc Henry,  William 
P.  Thomasson,  of  Kentucky,  Julius  Brockwell,  Daniel  G.  King, 
Charles  Hudson   and  George   Ashmun,  of  Massachusetts,  Columbus 


21 

Dolano,  Samuel  S.  Yenton,  Jesup  M.  Root,  Daniel  R.  Tilden,  and 
Joshua  R.  Giddings,  of  Ohio,  John  Runk,  George  Syles  and  Josiah 
Edsal,  of  New  Jersey,  Alfred  Dockery,  of  North  Carolina,  George 
P.  Marsh  and  Jacob  Collamer,  of  Vermont,  John  R.  Rcckwell  and 
Samuel  D.  Hubbard,  of  Connecticut,  Robert  Toombs,  of  Georgia, 
Alexander  Ramsay,  Richard  Broadhead  and  James  Pollock,  of  Penn- 
sylvania, Bennou  G.  Thibaux,  of  Louisiana,  John  S,  Pendleton,  of 
Virginia;  Luther  Severamc  and  Robert  F.  Dunlap,  of  INLiine,  Henry 
W.  Y.  Cranston  and  L.  H.  Arnold,  of  Rhode  Island,  Edward  Long, 
of  Maryland,  all  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
United  States  Congress  ;  John  McLean,  Levi  Woodbury,  James  M. 
Wayne,  Samuel  Nelson  and  John  McKinley,  Judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  L^nited  States  ;  Albfct  Gallatin,  late  Envoy  Extraordi- 
nary and  Plenipotentiary  Minister  of  the  United  States  to  France; 
Theodore  Frelinghuysen,  L.  L.  D.,  chancellor,  and  James  Tallemagc, 
president  of  the  L'^uiversity  of  New  York  ;  Josiah  Quincy,  L.  L.  D., 
late  president,  and  Jarcd  Sparks,  L.  L.  D.,  professor  of  Harvard 
University ;  Nathaniel  F.  Moor,  L.  L.  D.,  president  of  Columbia 
College ;  Professor  Joseph  G  Cogswell,  of  New  Y'ork  ;  Samuel  A. 
McCoskry,  Bishop  of  Michigan  ;  Rev.  G.  S,  Bedell,  of  the  Episcopal 
church  of  New  York  ;  John  McCloskey,  bishop  coadjutor  and  Charles 
Constantino  Pise,  D.  U.,  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church,  of  New  Y^ork  ; 
Thos.  H.  Skinner,  D.  D.,  of  New  York,  and  W.  B.  Sprague,  D.  D., 
of  Albany,  of  the  Presbyterian  church  ;  Rev.  Henry  W.  Bellows,  of  the 
Unitarian  church;  Rev.  Edwin  Holt  and  William  R.  Williams,  D.  D., 
of  the  Baptist  church  ;  William  F,  Havemeyer,  mayor  of  the  city  of 
New  Y'ork;  Josiah  Quincy,  Jr.,  mayor  of  the  city  of  Boston,  ir\  the 
State  of  Massachusetts  ;  (ireen  C.  Bronson,  chief  justice,  and  W. 
P.  Hallett,  clerk  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  this  State  ;  John  Van 
Buren,  attorney  general  of  this  State;  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  district 
attorney  of  the  Lanted  States  ;  W.  P.  McCoun,  vice  chancellor,  and 
Lewis  H.  Sanford,  assistau.t  vice  chancellor  of  this  State  ;  Daniel 
Lord,  Daniel  D.  Lord,  James  Sanford,  J.  Prescott  Hall,  W.  B.  Law- 
rence, David  P.  Hall,  Jonathan  Miller,  Thomas  W.  Tucker,  Samuel 
A.  Craps,  W.  M  Evarts,  John  Jay,  Charles  E.  Butler,  C.  H.  Piatt, 
Morris  Franklin,  E.  P.  Hurlburt,  John  Bigelow,  Edward  Sanford,  M. 
K.  Zabriskie,  D.  L.  Wite,  Mortimer  Porter,  Stephen  P.  Nash,  D.  W. 
Walker,  Francis  H.  Upton,  Ralph  Lockwood,  Edwin  Stoughton, 
Edwin  Burr,  D.  E.  Wheeler,  Alexander  J.  Johnson,  H.  S.  Dodge,  C. 
Van  Swartwood,  F4.ichard  H.  Bowne,  John  C.  Crosby,  John  H.  ' 
Magher,  Augustus  Shell,  John  Slosson,  Stephen  Cambreling,  John 
n.  Lee,  William  Van  Wyck,  of  city  and  State  of  New  Y''ork,  T. 
Parkin  Scott,  of  Baltimore,  in  the  State  of  Maryland,  James  Page 
and  George  W.  Page,  of  Philadelphia,  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania. 
John  Pickering,  Richard  Robins  and  George  Snelling,  of  Boston,  iu 
the  State  of  Massachusetts,  all  counsellors  at  law  ;  J.  J.  Astor,  Ed- 
ward Treadwell,  G.  H.  Stryker,  Alfred  G.  James,  W.  Woodbridge 
Hudson,  and  Livingston  H.  Miller,  all  attorneys  at  law  in  the  city 
and  State  of  New  York  ;  Richard  H.  Smith,  president  of  the  Uniorj 
Insurance  Company  of  Philadelphia,   in   the   State  of  Pennsylvania^ 


22    . 

and  Henry  Bolilen  of  the  city  and  State  aforesaid  ;  Dr.  Samuel  G. 
Howe,  Amos  Lawrence,  and  Charles  Lyman,  of  Boston,  in  the  State 
of  Massachusetts  ;  F.  C.  Tucker,  president  of  the  Leather  Manufac- 
turers' Bank,  James  Gallatin,  president  of  the  National  Bank,  Shep- 
herd Knapp,  president  of  the  Merchants'  Bank,  Reuben  Withers, 
cashier  of  the  Bank  of  the  State  of  New  York,  Preserve  Fish,  presi- 
dent of  the  Tradesman's  Bank,  George  Newbold,  president  of  the 
Bank  of  America,  J.  Oothout,  president  of  the  Bank  of  New  York, 
John  S.  Stevens,  president  of  the  Bank  of  Commerce,  and  George 
Curtis,  cashier  of  the  same  bank,  D.  Leavitt,  president  of  the  Bank 
of  Exchange,  and  John  S.  Fish,  cashier  of  the  same  bank,  Robert  S. 
Patterson,  president  of  the  Mutual  Benefit  Life  Insurance  Company, 
James  G.  King  and  Samuel  Ware*  Bankers,  Philip  R.  Kearney, 
Secretary  of  the  New  York  Life  Insurance  Company,  all  of  the  city 
and  State  of  New  York ;  Joseph  R.  Chandler,  proprietor  and  editor 
of  the  Philadelphia  United  States  Gazette,  James  W.  Webb  and 
Charles  King,  proprietors  and  editors  of  the  Courier  and  Enquirer, 
of  New  York,  John  H.  Guion,  publisher  of  the  Morning  Views,  of 
New  York,  Theodore  Dwight,  proprietor,  and  W.  B.  Townsend,  editor 
of  the  New  York  Express,  Francis  Hall,  proprietor  and  editor  of  the 
New  York  Commercial  Advertiser,  W.  C.  Bryant,  proprietor  and 
editor  of  the  New  York  Evening  Post,  Nathan  Hall,  proprietor  and 
editor  of  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  John  L.  O'Sullivan,  proprietor 
and  editor,  and  Thomas  P.  Kettal  and  C.  C.  Gardiner,  editors  of  the 
Democratic  Review,  John  Allen,  proprietor,  and  S.  Gaylord  Clark, 
editor  of  the  Knickerbocker,  Horace  Greeley,  editor  and  proprietor 
of  the  New  York  Tribune  ;  General  John  Wilson,  of  Missouri;  Col- 
onel James  Monroe,  R.  Watts,  Jr.,  M.  D.,  J.  LI.  Raymond,  Fitz 
Green  Ilalleck,  the  poet,  E.  F.  Forestry,  William  Douglass,  Vanbri  gU 
Livingston,  Campbell  P.  White,  Isaac  T.  Smith,  Elijah  F.  Pur  dy, 
James  Conner,  J.  D.  Fowler,  Jacob  A.  Westervell,  Amos  Livingston, 
John  Cotton  Smith,  W.  E.  Whiting,  J.  W.  Bogare,  all  of  the  city 
and  State  of  New  York ;  and  all  such  persons  as  they  shall  at  any 
time  hereafter  associate  with  themselves,  are  hereby  created  a  body 
corporate,  by  the  name  of  the  "  Polish  Sclavonian  Literary  Associa- 
tion in  the  State  of  New  York,"  for  the  purpose  of  collecting  a 
library,  and  promoting  the  diffusion  of  knowledge  of  the  history, 
science,  and  literature  of  the  nations  of  the  Sclavonian  race,  giving 
lectures  and  publishing  tracts,  and  a  journal  in  English,  and  such 
foreign  languages  as  the  corporation  shall  deem  proper. 

*'  §  2.  To  meet  the  exigencies  of  the  purposes  for  which  this  cor- 
'iPoration  is  created,  it  shall  have  the  power  of  holding  real  and  per- 
sonal property  to  the  amount  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
•dollars,  svhich  is  to  be  acquired  by  subscriptions,  gifts,  donations, 
assignments,  devises  and  purchases. 

*'  §  3.  The  Executive  Department  of  the  corporation  shall  consist 
of  a  President,  two  Vice  Presidents,  a  Corresponding  Secretary,  on 
Librarian,  one  Treasurer,  and  a  Board  of  Directors,   whose  numbe 
shall  not  exceed  eleven  members,  including  the   President   and  th 


23 

Vice    President,  who    shall    be    tx  officio    members   of  the  Board  of 
Directors. 

'*  §  4.  The  officers  enumerated  in  the  preceding  section  shall  be 
chosen  annually  on  the  29th  of  November,  by  a  plurality  of  votes  of 
the  members  who  shall  be  present  at  such  annual  meeting.  And  if 
such  meeting  shall  not  be  holden  on  that  day,  then  on  such  other  day 
as  the  President,  or,  in  his  absence,  the  acting  Vice  President  shall 
appoint. 

"  ^  5.  The  vacancies  -which  may  take  place  between  the  annual 
elections  shall  be  filled  by  commissions  to  be  issued  by  the  President, 
and  in  his  absence  by  the  acting  Vice  President,  with  the  advice  of 
the  Board  of  Directors,  and  the  officers  thus  appointed  shall  continue 
in  office  until  others  in  their  stead  be  elected  at  ihe  next  annual  meet- 
ing of  the  corporation. 

*'  §  6.  Tbe  corporation  shall  have  the  power  of  making  such  by-laws 
and  regulations  as  they  shall  judge  proper  for  regulating  further  their 
annual  and  other  periodical  meetings;  for  prescribing  the  duties  of  the 
respective  officers,  and  the  mode  of  discharging  theui ;  for  admission 
of  the  new  members,  and  the  mode  of  suspending  or  expelling  such 
officers  and  members  as  the  safety  and  honor  of  the  corporation  may 
require,  and  for  other  business  calculated  to  promote  the  oViject  and 
purposes  of  the  corporation.  But  it  is  expressly  proviiled  that  no 
by-laws  shall  pass,  or  be  changed,  unices  the  meeting  shall  be 
attended  by  a  majority  of  the  members  of  the  association  residing  in 
the  city  of  New  York.  The  members  residing  in  the  other  States 
may  send  their  votes  in  writing,  if  they  choose  to  do  so,  which  "shall 
be  counted  with  the  votes  of  the  members  present  at  the  meeting.  . 

**  §7.  Bight  Rev.  Bishop  McCoskry,  George  Folsome,  Senator, 
William  G.  Ilaverayer,  mayor  of  the  city  of  New  York,  Major  G. 
Tochman,  or  either  two  of  them,  are  authorised  to  invite  seven 
members  of  the  corporation  to  form  with  them  a  committee,  whose 
duty  shall  be  to  draw  the  hrst  by-laws,  and  to  submit  them  to  tho 
decision  of  the  corporation  at  a  meeting  which  the  said  committee 
shall  call  as  soon  as  they  prepare  the  by-laws.  This  meeting  shall 
also  elect  the  officers  of  the  corporation  for  the  current  year. 

**  §S.  No  debts  shall  be  contracted  by  the  said  corporation  except 
for  the  purchase  of  books,  for  printing  and  rent  of  rooms,  and  the 
whole  amount  of  its  debt  shall  at  no  time  exceed  two  thousand  dollars. 

"  §9.  The  said  corporation  shall  further  possess  all  general  powers 
and  be  subject  to  all  restrictions  and  liabilities  prescribed  by  the  Third 
titld  of  the  18th  Chapter  of  the  first  part  of  the  Revised  Statues  of 
this  State. 

"  ^MO.  This  Act  shall  take  effect  immediately. 

•'  State  of  New  York  :  In  A.i^-emblt/,  March  17,  1S46.  This  Bill 
having  been  read  the  third  time — two  thirds  of  all  members  elected 
to  the  Assembly  voting  in  favor  thereof, 

**  Resolved,  That  the  Bill  pass.     By  order^of  the  Assembly. 

"  Wm.  C.  Grain,  Speaker:' 


24 


'•  State  of  New  Yokx  :  In  Seiwie,  March  2-1,  ISJG.  This  Bill  hav- 
ing been  read  the  third  time — two  thirds  of  all  members  elected  to  the 
S^euate  voting  in  favor  thereof, 

"'  Ilesulved,  That  the  Bill  pass. 

*'  A.  GAi{Di>tER,  Fresideni.'^ 


''  Approved  this  26th  day  of  March,  1S4G. 


"Silas  Wright." 


State  of  New  York,      ) 
Stcretarifs  Office.  ^ 

*•  I  have  compared  the  preceding  vrith  original  act  of  the  Legisla- 
ture of  this  State,  deposited  in  this  office,  and  do  certify  that  the  same 
is  a  correct  transcript  or  exemplificution  thereof  and  of  the  Avhole  of 
said  original. 

*'  In  tesiimony  vyhereof,  I  have  hereunto  aSxed  ray  seal 
^v^-s^^  of  ollice,  at  the  City  of  Albany,  this  2Gth  day  of 

N     SEAL.    >  March,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord   one   thousand  eight 

v^*-.-*-/  ^  hundred  and  fifry-six. 

**  N.  S.  Benton, 
"  Sccrcianj  of  Slale^ 


«'  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA. 

*'  By  Silas  Wright,  Governor  of  iJte.  State  of  Neu)  York  :  It  is  hereby 
certified  that  Nathaniel  S.  Benton  is  Secretary  of  State  of  the  State 
of  New  York,  that  the  signature  of  '  N.  S.  Benton,'  to  the  annexed 
C'XcinpliQcation  is  his  proper  hand  writing,  and  that  the  said  exempli- 
fication is  authenticated  in  due  form  and  by  proper  officer. 

"  In  testimony  whereof,  the  great  seal  of  the  State  is 
^c^ ^*«-^  -  hereunto  affixed.     Witness  my  hand,  in  the  City  of 

\    SEAL.    I  Albany,  the    26th  of    March,    in  the  year  of    Our 

^  ^...^v'-^-/  ^  Lord,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  forty-six. 

"  Silas  Wright." 

/ 

«'  Passed  the  Secretary's  OfBce,  the  2Gth  of  March,  1846. 

*'  Arch.  Campbell, 
"  Dcpt.  Sec.  of  State.'' 


T. 


{EXHIBIT  No.  4  ) 

Spotswood  Hotel,  No.  107,      ^ 
Rkhinoyid,  Va.,  December  1,  18C3.  5 

Hon.  James  A.  Seddon,  Sccnlary  of  War  : 

giFSiR:  My  papers,  (marked  T,  W,  D,  246.)  being  on  file  in  your 
Department,  show  that  the  Presiflent  referre<l  to  your  decision  the 
subject  set  forth  in  the  letter  I  addressed  to  him  on  the  19th  of  Sep- 
tember last,  by  endorsing  on  the  wrapper  of  the  bundle  the  following 
directions  : 

*'  The  within  letter  from  Major  Tochman  contains  statements  which 
your  record  will  test. 

"  1st.  That  the  Secretary  of  War  promised  hira  the  appointment  of 
Brigadier  General. 

*'  2d.'  That  he  raised  a  brigade. 

**  3d.  That  I  refused  to  give  hira  the  commission  he  had  a  right  to 
expect. 

"  No  notice  is  taken  of  the  fact  that  the  authority  was  to  raise 
troops  abroad,  and  that  the^^  were  raised  at  home. 

"  The  claim  for  money  you  will  notice,  as  it  shall  be  found  to  rt-lato 
to  any  object  for  which  the  funds  of  your  Department  are  applicable." 
On  the  same  wrapper,  below  the  President's  directions,  is  endorsed 
your  decision,  as  follows  : 

"  Secretary  of  War  :  The  papers  in  the  matter  of  General  Tochman 
were  examined  last  winter,  and  he  was  informed  that  the  Department 
'  had  not  been  invested  with  the  power  or  mea«s  of  paying  for  official 
services  in  cases  when  do  commission  had  been  issued.'  lie  subse- 
quently applied  to  Congress,  and  a  committee  reported  a  complimen- 
tary resolution,  which  is  enclosed." 

I  beg  you  respectfully  to  review  this,  your  decision,  upon  the  fol- 
lowing grounds : 

1st.  In  the  bundle  of  the  papers,  my  letter  of  the  19th  of  September 
last,  referred  to  you  by  the  President,  is  missing.  I  infer  from  this 
that  it  was  not  before  you  when  that  decision  was  made.  I  enclose 
herein  a  copy  of  the  missing  letter,  which  will  show  you  that  that 
decision  does  not  cover  the  case. 

2d,  It  does  not  cover  even  the  requirements  pointed  out  by  the 
President  in  his  direction  numbered  1st,  2d  and  3d,  as  it  does  not 
appear  that  they  have  been  specially,  or  even  generally,  tested  by 
the  record  as  the  President  directs.  It  is  true  that  you  say  in  the 
decision  that  "  the  papers  in  the  matter  of  General  Tochman  were 
examined  last  winter."  But  that  examination  was  confined  ofily  to 
Ending  out  whether  a  regular  commission  was  issued  and  given  to  mo 
or  not.  The  object  of  finding  it  out  was  to  enable  you  then  to  decide 
whether  you  had  authority  to  pay  any  pecuniary  grievances.  The 
points  now  raised  by  the  President,  and  specified  in  his  directions  to 
yoa  under  the  numbers  1st,  2d  and  3d,  are  of  a  different  character, 
and  if  fully  established  by  the  evidence  of  record  in  your  Department, 


26 

may  secure  to  me   the  attainment  of  that  right  and  justice  which  I 
claim,  and  -which  are  due  to  me. 

3d.  It  is  erroneously  stated  in  your  decision,  that  I  applied  to  Con-, 
gress  "subsequently"  to  your  informing  me  that  the  department 
**  had  not  been  invested  with  the  power  or  means  of  paying  for  official 
services  in  cases  where  no  commission  had  been  issued."  My  memorial 
was  presented  to  Congress  in  January,  and  your  letter,  furnishing  me 
that  information  (without  my  request)  bears  the  date  of  February  17, 
1863.  The  complimentary  resolutions,  reported  by  the  committee  to 
which  you  refer  at  the  end  of  your  decision,  do  not  close  this  subject 
with  a  compliment  alone.  They  show  on  their  face  that  the  adjust- 
ment of  my  *'  pecuniary  grievances  "  is'left  to  the  Court  of  Claims. 
But  as  this  court  has  not  been  yet  created,  and  I  am  preparing  to  go 
to  Europe  to  assist  my  native  land,  Poland,  in  her  present  struggle,  I 
therefore  brought  this  matter  before  his  Excellency  by  the  letter  here- 
tofore referred  to,  which  is  missing  from  the  bundle  of  papers  being 
on  file  in  your  department,  begging  his  Excellency  to  settle  with  me 
this  claim  in  the  manner  stated  in  that  letter.  Your  decision  does  not 
meet  this  point  of  the  case. 

4th.  The  President  says  in  his  directions  addressed  to  you,  **  No 
notice  is  taken  (meaning  in  my  letter  to  him)  of  the  fact  that  the 
authority  was  to  raise  troops  abroad,  and  that  they  were  raised  at 
home."  The  Presidtnt  evidently  labored  under  great  mistake.  The 
authority  under  which  I  raised  my  troops  read  as  follows : 

*•  Confederate  States  of  America,  War  Department,  ) 
"  Montgomery,  M3ij  20,  \ 3^  I.      ) 

"  To  Major  Gaspar  Tochman  : 

**  Sir  :  You  are  authorized  to  raise  ten  companies,  to  be  composed 
of  persons  of  foreign  birth,  and  to  enlist  for  the  war,  with  the  privi- 
lege, on  the  part  of  the  privates,  to  withdraw  at  the  end  of  three 
years.  Or,  should  you  find  it  practicable,  you  are  authorized  to  raise 
twenty  companies,  which  would  he  organized  into  a  brigade.  Such 
officers  of  the  army  as  may  be  necessary  will  be  detailed  at  such 
points  within  the  Confederacy  as  you  may  indicate,  to  enlist  the  men. 
Or,  you  are  authorized  to  raise  two  regiments  for  the  war,  to  be 
received  with  the  officers  as  far  as  may  be  acceptable  to  the  Confederate  Gov- 
ernment. 

'*  Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

«'L.  P.  Walker, 
♦*  Secretary  of  War."*^ 

Besides  this  evidence  refuting  the  statement  that  I  had  to  raise  my 
troops  abroad,  I  respectfully  submit,  that  the  enlistment  of  troops 
abroad  is  so  unfavorably  looked  upon  by  the  international  law,  that  no 
man  of  honor  would  undertake  it,  nor  would  the  President  be  war- 
ranted in  accepting  such  sort  of  services.  Vattel,  in  his  Law  of 
Nations,  book  iii.,  chap,  ii.,  sec.  15,  says  :  **  *  *  *  The  man  who 
undertakes  to  enlist  soldiers  in  a  foreign  country,  without  the  sove- 


27 

reign's  permission,  *  *  *  *  violates  one  of  the  most  sacred 
rights  of  the  prince  and  the  nation.  This  crime  is  designated  by  the 
name  of  kidnapping  or  man-stealing,  and  is  punished  with  the  utmost 
severity  in  every  well-regulated  State.  Foreign  recruiters  are  hanged, 
icit/iout  mercy  and  loith  great  ji  stke.  It  is  not  presumed  that  their 
sovereign  has  ordered  them  to  commit  a  crime  ;  and,  supposing  even 
that  they  had  received  such  an  order,  they  ought  not  to  have  obeyed 
jt — their  sovereign  having  no  right  to  command  what  is  contrary  to  the 
law  of  nature.  *****  But,  if  appears  that  they  acted  by 
order,  such  a  proceeding,  in  a  foreign  sovereign,  is  justly  considered 
as  an  injury,  and  as  a  sufficient  cause  for  declaring  war  against  him, 
unless  he  makes  suitable  reparation." 

The  object  of  my  requesting  yoa  to  review  your  decision  is,  the 
expectation,  that  when  you  •'  test,  by  the  record,"  the  points  specified 
in  the  President's  directions  addressed  to  you,  which  are  numbered 
1st,  2d  and  3d,  and  when  you  disabuse  his  Excellency  from  the  error 
that  my  aumority  required  of  me  raising  my  troops  abroad,  he  may 
yet  do  me  that  justice,  which,  when  due,  as  the  whole  history  of  the 
case  proves,  it  is  never  too  late  to  administer.  , 

To  facilitate  your  search,  I  have  the  honor  to  communicate  to  you 
a  copy  of  the  memorial  presented  to  Congress  last  winter,  which  led 
the  Committee  on  Military  Affaire  to  adopt  and  report  these  compli- 
mentary resolutions  to  which  you  refer  at  the  close  of  your  decision. 
The  exhibits  numbered  3,  4,  6,  7,  9,  13,  15,  18,  19,  20  and  SI,  con- 
stitute the  record  by  which  you  will  have  to  test  the  points  his 
Excellency  desires  in  his  directions  addressed  to  you. 
I  have  the  honor,  sir,  to  be. 

Your  most  obedient  servant, 

G.    ToCIIMAN. 


{EXHIBIT  No.  5.) 

GENERAL  TOCHMAN  TO  MR.  SEDDON. 

Richmond,  V\.,  January  2,  1864, 
No.  107,  Spotswood  Hotel. 

Hon.  James  A.  Seddon, 

Secretary  of  War  Confederate  States  : 

Sir  :  I  do  not  find  recorded  in  the  document  office  of  your  Depart- 
ment the  letter  which  I  addressed,  and  personally  handed  to,  you  on  the 
4th  of  December  last,  requesting  you  to  review  your  decision  therein 
referred  to,  in  the  case  relating  to  the  claim,  either  of  brigadier's  sal- 
ary, due  me  for  the  period  I  raised  my  brigade,  (its  troops  being  in 
the  service  of  the  Confederate  States  since  the  commencement  of  this 
war,)  or  of  refunding  to  me  five  thousand  nine  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  dollars,  in  gold,  and  one  thousand  six  hundred  dollars  in  the  cur- 


28 

rency  of  the  Confederate  States,  expended  in  raising  that  brigade, 
ttc. — its  command  having  been  taken  from  me  without  cause  attributa- 
ble to  me. 

Anxious  to  bring  this  matter  to  a  final  issue,  to  enable  me  to 
go  to  Europe,  to  help  my  native  land  (Pohmd)  in  her  present  struggle, 
I  have,  almost  simultaneously  with  handing  that  letter  to  you,  ad- 
dressed myself  to  Congress,  tco  ;  and  the  case  is  now  before  the  Com- 
mittee on  Claims,  as  you  will  see  by  reference  to  the  enclosed  record,^ 
(printed  by  order  of  the  House,)  and  a  copy  of  the  letter  I  subse- 
quently addressed  to  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign 
Affairs,  to  which  this  case  was  originally  referred.  But  it  is  obvious 
that  your  decision,  whatever  it  may  be,  would  enable  that  committee 
to  take  up  the  case  and  report  it  sooner  than  they  can  do  it  without 
hearing  from  you. 

There  are  only  two  ways  of  bringing  this  case  to  its  proper  conclu- 
sion. The  record  before  you  settles  the  fact  that  the  command  of  the 
troops  I  raised,  under  the  express  agreement  that  I  would  command 
them,  was  taken  from  me  without  a  cause  attributable  to  me.  If, 
then,  the  President  is  disposed  to  do  me  full  justice,  it  is  in  his  power 
to  do  so,  by  directing  you  to  is^ue  my  brigadier's  commission,  dating 
from  the  time  I  reported  my  brigade  raised.  If  he  persists  in  his  un- 
willingness to  do  me  this  justice, 

"The  mild  honor  of  my  nanio,  I  boast, 
And  find  my  empire  there"' — 

And  I  respectfully  bog  you  to  recommend  to  Congress  that  my  ex- 
penses (five  thousand  nine  hundred  and  twcntj'-five  dollars,  in  gold, 
and  one  thousand  six  hundred  dollars  in  the  Confederate  Btatss  cur- 
rency) be  refunded  to  me  : 

This  last  request,  I  hope,  will  not  be  objected  to  ;  for  this  is  the 
only  way  of  settling  this  matter — when  the  President  has  already 
directed  you  to  "  notice  my  claim  for  money,  as  it  shall  be  found  to 
relate  to  any  object  for  Avhich  the  funds  of  your  Department  are  appli- 
cable," (page  twelve  of  this  enclosed  record,*)  and  when^you  have  de- 
cided that  you  *•  have  not  been  invested  with  the  power  or  means  of 
paying  for  official  services  where  no  commission  had  been  issued." 
(The  same  page  of  the  enclosed  record. f) 
I  have  the  honor,  sir,  to  be. 

Your  most  obedient  servant, 

G.    ToCHMVN. 

*Pa<;c  twenty-five  of  this  memoriiil. 

fXhe  same  page,  twenty-five,  of  this  memorial. 


39 

{EXHIBIT  No.  6.) 
'    MR.  SEDDON  TO  GENERAL  TOCHMAI^. 


Confederate  States  of  America,  ^ 
War  DcpaVi 
Richmond,  Va.,  Jan. 


America,  j 

rtment,      \ 

7,  1864.  ) 


Gv  TociiMANj  Esq.,  Richmond,  Va.: 

Sir  :  I  have  received  and  considered  your  letters  of  the  4th  of 
December,  18G3,  and  the  2d  inst.,  relative  to  your  claim  for  expenses 
incurred  in  raising  troops  for  the  Confederate  service. 

On  a  review  of  the  whole  case  presented  by  you,  I  cannot  see  that 
injustice  has  been  done  you.  The  nature  of  the  authority  given  you, 
manifestly,  in  ray  judgment,  shows  that  the  troops  were  to  be  raised 
abroad;  else  why  the  stipulation  that  officers  should  be  sent  to  enlist 
thera  ?  The  reference  to  the  regiments,  with  the  officers,  if  acceptable, 
are  all  the  same  view.  Troops  could  not  be  enlisted  abroad  ;  they  could 
only  be  engaged  to  come  in.  Hence,  they  had  to  be  enlisted  by  Confed- 
erate authorities  here.  Officers,  too,  might  be  engaged  abroad,  and 
arrangements  were  made  to  accept  them,  likewise.  No  pecuniary 
claim  could  arise  against  the  Department  unless  from  a  commission 
issued,  and  as  that  of  brigadier  general  was  not  conferred,  no  power 
for  the  pay  of  such  office  or  its  equivalent  can  exist.  Besides,  the 
matter  had  long  been  determined  before  my .  connection  with  this 
Department.  I  do  not  see  the  force  of  equities  presented  in  tho  case, 
but  if  they  exist,  they  pertain  to  the  jurisdiction  of  Congress,  and 
"would  not  justify  any  action  or  recommendation  on  my  part. 
Your  obedient  servant, 

James  A..  Sedpon, 
Secretary  of  War. 


{EXHIBIT  No.  7.) 

GENERAL  TOCIIMAN  TO  MR.  SEDDON. 

HicHMCND,  Va.,  Jan.  12,  1854. 
To  Hon.  James  A.  Seddo?^, 

Secretary  of  Wat^  C.  S. : 

Sir:  On  tho  17th  of  February,  1863,  you  wrote  to  ma  a  letter, 
which  reads  as  follows  : 

"  Your  claim  for  services  a3  recruitint^  agerit  is  apparently  a  just 
one,  but  Congress  has  not  afiforded  to  this  Department  the  power  or 
means  of  paying  for  official  services  in  cases  where  no  commission 
has  been  issued.  A  great  many  claims  of  this  nature,  whose  merits 
are  not  denied,  have  been  rejected  for  this  reason.     The  Department 


30 

has  recommended  to  Congress  to  make   some  provisio*  for  them,  and 
until  that  is  done,  it  is  without  power  or  means  to  act. 

"  Ivespectfully,  James  A.  Seddon, 

Secretary  of  ffor." 

By  an  answer,  bearing  the  date  of  March  2,  1863, 1  have  corrected 
your  misconstruction  of  the  authority  under  which  I  raised  my  brigade, 
informing  you  therein,  that  I  have  never  acted  in  the  capacity  of  a 
recruiting  agent ;  that,  being  a  field  officer  of  the  Polish  army,  in 
1830  and  1831,  I  would  have  never  sacrificed  my  property  in  the 
United  States,  the  welfare  of  my  family  I  left  there,  and  all  my 
prospects  at  the  North,  to  be  a  mere  recruiting  agent,  my  most  sincere 
devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  Confederate  States,  notwithstanding  ;  that 
I  raised  that  brigade  of  troops  for  my  own  command,  which  was 
taken  from  me  in  violation  of  the  authority  stipulated  for  under  the 
provisions  of  the  act  of  Congress,  No.  109,  approved  May  8,  1861, 
and  accepted  by  me  from  your  predecessor,  Mr.  Walker ;  and  I 
respectfully  requested  you  to  inform  me  what  occasion  gave  place  to 
your  addressing  me  as  a  recruiting  agint. 

Your  reply  bearing  date  of  March  4,  1863,  was  as  follows: 

<*  Your  letter  of  the  2d  instant,  has  been  received.  In  reply,  you 
are  respectfully  informed  that  the  Department,  in  its  letter  of  the  17th 
ultimo,  had  no  intention  of  disparaging  the  character  or  justice  of  your 
claims,  but  merely  desired  to  communicate  the  fact  that  Congress  had 
not  invested  it  with  the  power  to  acknowledge  and  pay  them." 

Respectfully,  James  A.  Seddon, 

Secretary  of  War. 

After  this  reply,  which  I  considered  as  a  disclaimer  of  the  offensive 
construction  of  that  authority  under  which  I  raised  my  troops,  you 
again  returned  to  that  offensive  construction  in  the  letter  bearing  date 
January  7,  1S64,  addressed  to  me  in  answer  to  the  claim,  either  of 
paying  me  brigadier's  salary  for  three  years,  this  being  the  period 
for  which  I  raised  my  brigade,  and  its  regiments  being  in  service  of 
the  Confederate  States  since  the  commencement  of  the  war ;  or,  of 
refunding  to  me  five  thousand  nine  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars  in 
gold,  and  one  thousand  six  hundred  in  the  currency  of  the  Confede- 
rate States,  actually  expended  in  raising  those  troops,  &c.,  exclusive 
of  heavy  losses  in  property,  &c  ,  to  which  my  siding  with  the  South 
has  subjected  me;  which  last  mentioned  losses  1  consider  as  the 
result  arising  from  the  ordinary  incidents  of  war,  and  claim  nothing 
therefor. 

In  that  letter,  bearing  date  of  January  7,  1864,  you  say:  '*  On  a 
review  of  the  whole  case  presented  by  you,  I  cannot  see  that  injustice 
has  been  done  you." 

And  to  support  this,  your  view  of  my  case,  you  allege — 

"  The  nature  of  the  authority  given  you,  manifestly,  in  my  judg- 
ment, shows  that  the  troops  were  to  be  raised  abroad  ;  else  why  the 
stipulation  that  officers  should  be  sent  to  enlist  them  ?•  The  reference  to, 
the  regiments  with  the  officers,  if  acceptable,  are  all  the  same  view." 


31 

Now,  sir,  the  record  on  file  in  your  Department  shows,  that  though 
the  President  endorsed  on  the  bundle  of  my  papers  filed  in  Mont- 
gomery, Alabama,  ^^appointed  colonel,  May  II,  1861,  file  carefully ,''''  xnx 
regular  commission  was  not  issued.  The  authority  under  which  I 
raised  my  troops  was  addressed  to  me  as  major,  which  rank  I  held  in 
the  Polish  army  in  1S30-'31.  The  regular  commission  was  to  be 
issued  when  I  raised  my  troops :  of  colonel  if  I  raised  one  regiment, 
and  of  brigadier  if  I  raised  a  brigade ;  which  privilege  was  extended 
and  granted  to  me  by  that  authority  subsequently  to  the  foregoing 
endorsement,  "appointed  colonel,  May  11,1861."  It  is  obvious,  then, 
that,  not  being  a  regularly  commissioned  officer  of  the  army  of  the 
Confederate  States  at  the  time  of  raising  my  troops,  1  could  uot  enlist 
or  muster  into  service  ray  men.  An  agency  of  commissioned  officers 
to  do  this  was  required,  and  as  it  was  not  expected  that  I  could  raise 
all  my  troops  in  one  place  in  the  Confederate  States,  being  allowed  to 
accept  but  a  small  number  of  the  natives  of  this  country,  it  was 
stipulated,  and  inserted  in  the  authority  accepted  by  me,  that  "  such 
officers  of  the  army  as  may  be  necessary  will  be  detailed,  at  such 
points  within  the  Confederacy  as  I  may  indicate,  to  enlist  the  men." 
That  so  was  understood  at  the  time  of  my  accepting  that  authority, 
and  so  must  be  understood  now  "  the  stipulation  that  officers  should 
be  sent"  (to  such  places  as  I  may  designate)  **  to  enlist  the  men," 
and  not  so  as  you  have  been  pleased  to  construe  it,  proves  the  fact, 
which  cannot  be  overleaped  by  any  cavil,  that  your  predecessor,  Mr. 
AValker,  who  stipulated  with  me  for  raising  these  troops  and  drew  the 
authority,  knew  where  I  was  raising  them,  and  fully  endorsed  my 
proceedings  in  this  respect,  as  the  following  official  correspondence, 
herein  attached  in  a  printed  cut,  shows  it : 

«'  TELEGRAPHIC  DISPATCHES. 

**  \st.  From  the  Secretary  cf  War  : 

"Dated  Richmond,  June  19,  1861.  Received,  New  Orleans,  June 
19,  1861, o'clock, min.  M. 

"  To  Colonel  Caspar  Tochman: 

"  Our  supply  of  arms  is  so  limited,  that  you  had  better  not  under- 
take to  raise  exceeding  a  regiment.  L.  P.  Walker." 

2.   Answer  to  above,  by  telegraph. 

"  Headquarters  of  the  Polish  Brigade,  C.  S.  Army, 
New  Orleans,  La.,  57,  St.  Charles  Street,  June  20,  186*1. 

"Hon.  L.  P.  Walker, 

"  Secretary  of  War^  Richmond,  Virginia  : 

"  Twenty  companies  are  already  raised,  uniformed  and  drilling 
here,  and  some  in  Mississippi  ;  seven  mustered  into  service  and 
encamped  at  Amite.  Six  were  to  be  mustered  in  to-day,  and  the  rest 
on  Saturday.  Should  you  curtail  me  now  to  one  regiment,  it  would 
cause  a  good  deal  of  trouble,  loss  and  dissatisfaction.    The  confidence 


32 

of- those  who  responded  to  my  proclamation  would  be  irretrievably  lost, 
and  the  favorable  reaction  amongst  the  foreigners,  which  the  announce- 
ment of  my  forming  the  Polish  brigade,  has  elicited  in  Missouri  and 
at  the  >Iorth,  would  be  checked.  Please  then,  advise  with  the  Presi- 
dent. I  will  keep  up  the  work  quietly  until  further  orders.  Should 
you  send  me  arms  immediately,  the  whole  brigade  would  take  the  field 
jn  less  than  thirty  days. 

*<G.    TOCIIMAN." 

3.  Secretary's  answer  to  the  above,  by  ickgraph. 

"  D^ated  Pvichmond,  June  20,  1861.  Received,  Kew  Orleans,  June 
20,  18GI. 

"  To  Colonel  G.  Tochman  : 

"  If  the  companies  are  raised,  of  course  I  shall  not  interfere.  Let 
them  be  mustered  into  service. 

"L.  P.  Walker." 

It  follows,  from  the  foregoing  facts,  established  by  this  official  cor- 
respondence, which  is  conclusive,  and  settles  the  interpretation  of  my 
authority  in  question,  that  "  the  reference  to  the  regiments,  with  the 
officers,  if  acceptable,"  has  no  other  meaning  than  the  assurance 
stipulated  that  such  oincers  as  I  may  bring  into  service  with  my  regi- 
ments should  be  accepted  by  the  Governm-ent,  if  there  was  nothing 
objectionable  to  their  character.  And  this  pledge  of  your  predecessor 
was  fully  respected.  Only  one  oflicer,  Frank  Schalier,  Major  of  the 
second  Polish  regiment  of  my  brigade,  which  is  now  designated 
"  fifteenth  Louisiana  regiment,"  was  dropped  by  him  to  make  room 
for  another  individual.  But,  upon  my  protesting  against  it.  His 
Excellency  the  President  reinstated  him  in  the  service,  and  promoted 
him  to  the  rank  of  Lieutenant  Colonel  of  the  twenty-second  Missis- 
sippi regiment,  of  which  he  is  now  commanding  Colonel. 

To  strengthen  these  faulty  postulates,  and  to  maintain,  based  upon 
it,  your  view  of  my  case  that  "  no  injustice  has  been  done  to  me," 
you  further  allege  in  that  letter;  *'  Troops  could  not  be  enlisted 
abroad  ;  they  could  only  be  engaged  to  come  in.  Ilencc  they  had  to 
be  enlisted  by  the  Confederate  authorities  here.  Officers,  too,  might 
be  engaged, abroad,  and  arrangements  were  made  to  accept  them  like- 
wise." 

All  this  could  have  been  done.  I  do  not  contest  it ;  but  I  have  not 
undertaken  to  go  abroad  to  bring  here  men  or  officers  to  be  enlisted 
by  the  Confedertlte  authorities.  Nor  have  I  ever  made  arrange- 
ments you  speak  of  that  "  they  were  made  to  accept  the  officers  like- 
wise." My  authority  is  too  plain  and  imambiguous  to  admit  so  strange, 
and  offensive  to  me,  construction.  Your  predecessor  who  drew  it 
and  stipulated  vrith  me  for  its  acceptance,  never  dreamed  of  giving  ic 
a  construction  so  inconsistent  with  what  1  have  undertaken  to  do  for 
the  Confederate' States,  and  so  adverse  to  the  principles  of  the  inter- 
national law,  to  which  I  referred  you  in  my  letter  of  December  4,  18G3, 


S-6 

which  defines  the  action  urged  by  you. to  be  a  *'  crime,"  a-  *'  kidhapc 
ping  or  stealing  men,"  punishable  by  **  hanging,"  and  exposing  the 
State  that  would  adopt  or  authorize  it  to  a  "  vrar,  unless  suitable  rep- 
aration IS  ranie."     {VnitcVsLaw  of  Nations,  book  111.,  chap.  2,  sec.  15.) 

Resting  your  view  in  my  case  upon  so  strange,  singular  and  faulty 
postulates,  }'ou  conclude  that  letter  : 

"  IS  0  pecuniary  claim  could  arise  against  this  Department  unless 
from  a  commission  issued;  and  as  that  of  Brigadier  General  was  not 
conferred,  no  power  to  pay  of  such  office,  or  its  equivalent,  can  exist. 
Besides  the  u);vtter  had  long  been  determined  before  my  connection 
with  the  Department.  I  do  not  see  the  force  of  equities  presented  in 
the  case,  but  if  they  exist,  they  pertain  to  the  jurisdiction  of  Congress 
and  woula  not  justify  any  action  or  recommendation  on  my  part. 
"  Your  obedient  servant, 

*'  James  A.  Seddon, 
^  **  Secretary  of  War.'''' 

Disclaiming  any  intention  to  be  indiscreet,  I  am  compelled  to  answer 
this,  your  conclusion,  by  saying  that,  had  the  Confederate  Aates  no 
laws  regul-itiiii:  and  securing  rights  of  individuals,  acquirea  by  deal- 
ing with  theii-  Government,  ray  pecuniary  claim  might  be  barred  by 
the  arbitrary  withholding  of  that  commission  to  which  I  am  entitled  by 
having  perf>rmed  my  part  of  the  contract,  stipulated  with  your  pre- 
decessor. But,  thanks  be  to  God,  we  live  yet  under  the  laws  regula- 
ting our  coniuot  and  guarding  our  rights,  1  will,  therefore,  search 
to  recover  wl-.at  is  due  to  me  where  you  direct  me. 

But,  sir,  I  cannot  close  this  communication  without  expressing  the 
sense  of  my  deeply  hurt  feelings.  1  lost  all  material  worldly  goods  in 
1834  becaubc  I  did  not  bend  my  neck  before  the  autocrat  of  Russia, 
and  refused  to  accept,  four  times  oifered  me,  amnesty  when  I  was  in 
Prussia,  and  subsequently  in  France.  I  carried  only  from  the  old 
world,  and  brought  to  the  new,  my  honor,  good  name  and  character. 
That,  for  the  purpose  of  subserving  a  mistaken  political  convenience  of 
no  public  interest,  an  attempt  should  be  made  by  a  republican  execu- 
tive of  the  Confederate  States,  whose  cause  I  have  embraced,  to  assign 
to  me  a  degrading  position ;  to  deprive  mc  of  that  which  the  Czar  did  not 
dare,  and  could  not  grasp  ;  and  that  it  should  be  attempted  with  unre- 
lenting obstinacy,  without  the  least  regard  to  their  own  interest,  and 
upon  strained,  faulty  postulates, *is  more  than  can  be  endured.  I  will 
not,  however,  turn  a  Marcius  Coriolanus.  But  I  sincerely  wish  I  had 
not  lived  to  record  so  sad  a  fact,  which  I  am  compelled  to  do  in  defence 
of  my  honor,  good  name  and  character.  JFor,  Mr.  Secretary,  it  is  not 
for  brigadier's  commission  that  I  am  contending.  I  defend  my  rio^ht 
to  it  solely  because  the  manner  in  which  the  command  of  my  brigade 
■was  taken  from  me,  independent  of  what  I  have  said  just  above,  would 
leave  a  suspicion  of, misdemeanor  having  been  committed  by  me,  unless 
these  faulty  and  strained  postulates,  upon  which  the  Executive  bases  its 
prosecution  against  me,  be  fully  exposed  to  the  view  and  recorded. 
I  have  the  honor  to  be,  sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

G.  TOCHMAN. 
3 


34 
{EXHIBIT  NO.  8.) 

LEGAL  PROPOSITIONS. 

Mr.  Chairman:  I  conclude  ray  statement  and  ar^ruraeiit  by  filing 
•wilh  the  cummfttee  and  submitting  to  their  consideration  the  follow- 
ing legal  propositions: 

Ist.  Th:it  the  evidence  spread  upon  the  record  before  you  proves 
that  the  commiasion  of  colonelcy,  if  I  raised  a  regiment,  and  that  of 
brigadier  general,  if  I  raised  a  brigade,  was  not  to  be  a  gift  or  favor 
offered  to  me.  It  was  a  stipulated — offered  to  me,  and  accepted 
])y  me — CONSIDERATION  for  undertaking  to  raise  troops  of  ^'persons  of 
foreign  birth,''''  from  which  it  follows  that  the  authority  given  to  me, 
and  accepted  by  mo,  to  raise  those  troops,  and  its  verbal  extension  to 
accept  the  services  of  such  natives  as  might  desire  to  serve  under  my 
command,  is  a  contract. 

2.  This  evidence  proves,  also,  conclusively,  that  I  have  fully  per- 
formed my  nart  of  this  contract.  In  other  words  :  It  proves  that  I 
have  raisecflft  brigade  of  troops  under  the  designation  of  the  "  Polish 
Brigade,''''  1,700  men  strong,  exclusive  of  the  officers;  in  which  num- 
ber there  were  {,^\b  foreigners  in  the  ranks,  and /our  amongst  the 
officers.  And  it  further  proves,  that  these  troops  have  been  accepted 
by  the  Government,  and  are  in  the  service  of  the  Confederate  States 
under  the  designation  of  the  i4th  and  15th  regiments  of  Louisiana 
volunteers,  with  the  exception  of  two  companies,  which  dispersed  on 
hearing  that  the  Government  refused  to  commission  me  as  brigadier 
general,  for  which  dispersion,  it  is  submitted,  no  charge  of  responsi- 

,  bility  can  attach  to  me,  it  being  the  result  of  the  Government'' s  proceeding. 

3.  The  allegation  of  the  President  that  he  did  not  authorize  the 
Secretary  of  War  to  "  promise"  me  brigadiership,  cannot  defeat  my 
right  to  that  rank  acquired  by  the  performance,  on  my  part,  of  the 
contract — when  I  made  that  contract  with  the  Secretary  bona  fidCy 
and  knew  nothing  of  the  instructions  the  President  gave  him. 

4.  The  charges  of  the  alleged  misconstruction  of  my  authority, 
and  that  I  had  to  raise  my  troops  "  abroad,"  are  erroneous.  They 
are  conclusively  refuted  by  the  letter  I  addressed  to  the  Secretary  of 
War,  the  next  day  after  the  date  of  that  authority,  {jmge  13,  exhibit 
4  of  the  memorial*)  and  by  the  official  telegraphic  correspondence 
with  him,  held  during  the  raising  and  organizing  of  my  brigade, 
{pages  15  and  16,  exhibit  6  of  the  same  memorial,,  and  page  4  of  the 
subsequent  correspondence  printed  by  order  of  the  House,  of  Jannary  15, 

1864.t) 

5.  The  Secretary  of  War  admitted  the  justness  of  my  money  claim 
in  his  letters  of  February  17th,  and  March  4th,  1863,  (page  4,  of  the. 
printed  correspondence  by  order  of  the  House,  of  January  15,  186 4, J) 
refusing  to  pay  it,  solely  because  he  "  has  no  authority  to  pay  claims 


■Pages  S-€b»4»6  of  this  memorial. 

I  Pages  8  and  tia  of  this  memorial.  ^  ^     ^  ^ 

Page  29  of  this  memorial.  *_  ^s^**W     t/t>. 


35 

where   no   commission  has   been    issued  "     The   President  also  has 
admitted  ray  right  to  it,  by  di recti ng  the   Secretary  of  War  to  take 
notice  of  the  same  as  it  *' sfinll    be  found   to  relate   to  any  object  for 
which  the  funds  of  bis  depjirtraent  are  applicable."     {Pnge  l;i  of  the 
record  printed  by  order  of  the  House,  of  December    10,    1364:*)     The 
subsequent  reasoning  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  that  **no  pecuniary 
claim   could  arise  against  the  department,  unless    from    a  commis- 
sion issued,  and  a&  that  of  brigadier   general  was  not  conferred,  no 
power   to  pay   of  such   office   or  its   equivalent   can   exist,"   cannot 
stand  the  test  of  the  law  in  this  case,  when  it  is  proved  that  the  com- 
mission   is  withholdeu  without  any  fault   attributable   to  me,  and  in 
violation  of  the  contract  fully  performed   on  my  part;  and  when  my 
troops  have  been  accepted,  and  are  in  the  service  of  the  Confederate 
States.     "  No   man    can   take    advantage   of  his   own  wrong   done  to 
another  man,"    and   this  rule  applies   with  the  same  force  to    Gov- 
ernmenti.     The  laws  of ■  the  land  vesting  "the  appointing  pbwer  in  the 
Executive  exclusively,  and  reserving  no  other  controlling  power  but 
the  appioval  or  rejection  of  the  appointments  by  the  Senate,  there  is 
no  authority  to  compel    the   President   to   comply  \\-fth  ^that  contract 
and  issue  ray  cgmmisiJion  ;  but  his  withholding  it  from  me,  in  viola- 
tion of  that  contract,  doen  not  bar  my  right  to  tlie  salary  and  commu- 
tation attached  to  brigadier's  commission,  when   these  are  but  a  con. 
sideration  due  me  for'the  performance  of  my  part  of  the  contract.     The 
law  is  settled  that  when    A   stipulates   for   B's  services  for  a  stated 
period,  and  then  discharges  him  b(  fore  tbj»t  period — v.ithout  reason — 
to  suit  his  arbitrary  whim,  or  imaginary  advantage,  or  even  any  sup- 
posed true  or"rai8taken  policy,  he  must  pay  B's  w'ages,  in  full,  for  the 
whole  period  of  stipulated  service.   |f  he  refuses,  the  court  of  law  will 
compel  him  to  do  it,  by  adjudicating  th^m  to  B  as  damages  ;  and  it  will 
give  B  from  A  the  costs  too,  for   breaking   the  contract.     It  is  sub- 
mitted that  my  case   is  eveji  stronger,  ior   the  salary  and  commutation 
attached  to  brigadier's  commission,  to  which  I  acquired  a  perfect  right 
by  performing  ray  part  of  the  contract,  are  intended  not  only  to  pay 
the  services,  but  also  to  compensate  me  for  the  expenses  and  losses  to 
which  the  undertaking  to   raise   my  troops    has   subjected   me,  there 
being  no  provision  made  for  refunding  them    in   the  act  of  Congress 
No.  109,   approved  May  8,  1861,un(;er  the  authority  of  which- the 
Secretary  of  War  stipulated  for  raising  the  troops  I  did  raise. 

6.  Though  I  have  an  undoubted  right  to  the  salary  and  commuta- 
tion of  brigadier  general  for  three  years,  (it  being  the  period  for 
which  I  raised  my  troops,  and  they  being  in  the  service  of  the  Con- 
federate States,)  I  would  waive  this  right  should  Congress  choose  to 
refund  me  the  actual  expenses  I  incurred  in  raising  those  troops,  in 
such  currency  as  I  bore  or  disbursed  them:  making  1|;5,925  in  gold, 
and  $1,600  in  the  treasury  notes  of  the  Confederate  States.  But,  I 
submit,  that  considering  the  expected  commission  of  Brigadier  Gen- 
eral and  the  salary  and  commutation  attached  to  it  to  be  my  only 
legitimate  consideration  for  services  and  disbursements  or  expenses  in- 


*Page  25  of  thia  memorial. 


30 

eurredinmy  undertakwg  to  raise  these  troops,  I  did  not  keep  any 
account  of  those  disbursements,  not  expecting  to  have  ever  th>s  diffi. 
cultj  in  obtaining  that  legal  and  legitimate  cons^ideration  to  which  the 
contract  and  the  law  give  me  the  absolute  right ;  I  am  not  prepared, 
therefore,  to  prove  these  disbursements  by  specifying  their  items  and 
by  supporting  them  by  ihe  vouchors.  Lut,  that  their  gross  sujui,  as 
stated  above,  is  true  and  correct,  I  pledge  my  word,  and  I  am  ready 
to  affirm  it  by  the  oath,  if  required.  It  is  hoped  that  this  secondary 
evidence  will  be  accepted,  when  I  havo  been  debarred  from  collecting 
the  primary  by  the  disappointed  confidence  in  dealing  with  me,  which 
it  was  impossible  to  foresee.  If  it  is  rejected^  I  beg  for  that  consid- 
eration to  which  the  performan(Je  of  the  contract,  on  my  part,  gives 
me  the  right — to-wit :  the  brigadier's  salary  and  commutation  for 
three  years. 

7.  My  withdrawing  from  the  service  cannot  be  construed  as  resign- 
ation, for,  my  regular  commission  nof  being  issued,  I  coulr^not  resign 
what  I  did  not  possess.  The  refusal  of  the  President  to  issue  and 
give  me  my  regular  commission  drove  me  out  of  the  service-;  of  course 
I  withdre^^  birt  I  never  surrendered  the  right  to  claim  what  is  due 
to  me. 

8.  I  beg  for  a  special  act  for  my  relief  on  the  ground  that  the 
Court  of  Claims  has  not  been  yet  created,  and  because  I  am  prepar- 
ing to  leave  this  country  to  assist  my  nativO  land,  Poland,  in  her 
struggle  for  independence. 

Mr.  Chairman,  on  page  38  of  the  memorial*  you  will  find  a  docu- 
ment which  will  show  you  that  the  Polish  Democratic  societies  in 
France  and  England  disapproved  my  taking  part,  in-  this  war,  with 
the  Confederate  States.  My  answer  to  their  resolutions  disapproving 
it  was  received  satisfactorily  to'hne,  and  has  done  soma  good  to  the 
cause  of  the  Confederate  States.  But,  as  a  distant  people  is  apt  to 
attribute  the  persecutive  policy  of  a  foreign  government  to  the 
character  of  the  people  represented  by  such  government,  I  kept  from 
their  knowledge  the  President's  continued  hostility  to  me  without 
cause.  The  following  is  the  closing  part  of  ray  answer  to  these 
Polish  Democratic  societies : 

*  *  *  <<  rpjjg  causes  of  my  siding  with  the  Southern  Confede- 
racy are  those  of  the  masses  of  the  Southern  people — to  save  the  prin- 
ciples upon  which  the  Covstitution  of  the  United  States  was  built  up,  when 
the  Union  could  not  have  been  saved — and  with  them  1  will  swim  or  sink. 

"  I  enclose  and  send  you  two  speeches  which  I  made  ;  first,  on  the 
16th  of  August,  I860,  before  the  National  Democratic  ('onvention  at 
Staunton,  Ya.,  as  a  member  of  that  Convention  ;  second,  on  the  24th 
of  October,  18GU,  before  the  National  Democratic  Club  in  Washing- 
ton, D.  C.  They  will  show  you  my  fears,  then,  for  the  safety  of  the 
Union,  and  the  humble,  legitimate  efforts  which  I  joined  with  those 
who  laboved  to  save  it. 

"  I  enclose,  also,  copies  of  two  letters  ;  first^  addressed  to  the  Presi- 


*Which  was  presented  to  Congress  in  January,  1863. 


37 

dent  of  the  Confederate  States  on  the  let  of  May,  1861  ;  s  cond,  to 
Mr.  Seward,  Secretary  of  Stato  of  the  United  States.  You  w  11  learn 
from  these  letters  t'nac  I  lefc  the  Union  !;nd  tendered  my  services  to 
the  Confederate  States  v,  hen  President  Lincoln  inaugurated  the  war-  — 
which  finally  dispelled  all  hope,  and  left  no  shadow  of  probability  of 
its  restvation  upon  tho  con;.i:tati-.)n!il  husis 

"  I  have  now.  to  inforin  you  tli:ic  I  a'.n  out  of  the  Coafederato  States' 
service.  I  have  withdrawn,  and  surrendered  to  the  Government  the 
troops  raised  by  me  on  the  2nth  of  Julj  last.  In  proper  time,  I 
will  send  you  all  the  correspondence  with  the  War  Department  and 
the  President  of  the  Confederate  States  relating  to  the  misunder- 
standing which  led  to  this  result.  You  will  learn,  then,  that  whilst 
I  have  been  true  to  my  allegiance  here,  I  have  not  forgotten  for  a 
moment  what  was  due  t^p  our  beloved  country  and  my  honor. 
*'  Accept,  citizens,  the  assurances  of  regard, 

*'  With  sincere  greeting  of  your  faithful  countryman, 

"  G.    ToCHMAN." 

From  similar  motives,  I  did  not  expose  the  details  of  their  perse- 
cuiive  policy  towards  me  before  the  public  of  this  country.  The 
newspapers"  disapprovals  of  the  treatment  I  met  with  w-ere  written 
without  my  knowledge,  and,  therefore,  dwelt  only  upon  the  g'^neral- 
ities  of  that  treatment.  Yet,  Mr.  Chairman,  the  injury  to  your  cause 
resulting  from  this  persecutive  policy  could  not  be  averted,  and  it  is 
very  great.  But  for  it,  you  would  S'e  mc  .to-day,  probably,  at  the 
head  of  a  large  army  of  foreign  troops,  under  the  designation  of  a 
Polish  division,  and,  perhaps,  of  a  corps,  1  1  ad  on  my  list  over  one 
hundred  foreign  officers  who  had  to  come  from  thje  North  to  co-ope- 
rate with  me.  With  them,  under  the  protection  of  the  Polish  bri- 
gade I  raised  in  Louisiana,  I  could  hive  raised  in  Missouri  alone  a 
large  hrmy  of  Geiniaus.  The  thirty  or  forty  thou,s?.nd  Germans  of 
Missouri  who  are  now  fighting  against  you,  would  be  under  my  com- 
mand on  yuur  side.  You  would  have  no  reason  to  complain  against 
the  indifference  of  foreigners.  They  wanted  a  leader  of  their  own; 
but  not  a  Prince,  whose  family's  antecedents  are  not  endeared  to  the 
progressive  liberal  part  of  the  European  people,  and  miglit,  probably, 
have  contributed  to  causing  this  change  in  the  disposition  of  the 
Emperor  of  the  French  towards  the  Confederate  States  which  we 
now  witness.  Had  not  my  brigade  been  dissolved  ;  had  these  foreign 
troops,  under  my  command,  been  encouraged  and  allowed  to  grow, 
the  mere  itifiuence  arising  out  of  their  existence,  under  the  command 
of  a  Polish  veteran,  would  have  checked  the  enlistment  of  foreigners 
in  the  Federal  aimy;  it  would  have  been  your  hQ^t  propaganda  to 
induce  the  European  people  to  study  the  merits  of  your  cause,  and 
to  gain  you  this  public  ^opinion  abroad  you  so  need  to  obtain  the  recog- 
nition of  your  independence.  All  these  advantages  are  irretrievably 
lost.  But  there  is  yet  time  to  gain  a  great  deal,  if  you  are  just  to  the 
friendly  foreigners  ;  and  a  juster  case  of  a  foreigner,  apparently  of  a 
private  character,  in  which,  nevertheless,  honor,  honesty,  self-interest 


38 

of  the  country,  and  its  trite  foreign  policy  aro  involved,  was 
brought  before  the  bar  of  the  representatives  of  any  other  nali^"- 

G.     TOCH.MAN. 

Fikd  with  the   Commiltee  on    Claims  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
January  27,  I8o4. 


{EXHIBIT  No.  9.) 
AFFIDAVIT. 


State  of  Virginia,      )     ji       7 
Ciiy  of  Richmond,  5 


Before  me,  J.  S  AVilliains,  notary  public  for  the  city  of  Richmond, 
in  the  State  of  Virginia,  on  the  29th  day  of  January,  1864,  person- 
ally appeared  General  G.  Tochman,  a  native  of  Poland,  who,  after 
being  sworn  according  to  law,  made  the  following  affidavit,  to- wit: 
That  shortly  after  the  troubles,  which  resulted  in  this  war,  had  com- 
menced, the  affiant  left  Washington,  D.  C,  where  he  then  resided, 
repaired  to  Montgomery,  Alabama,  and  tendered  his  services  to  the 
Confedernte  States.  That  the  affiant's  services  were  accepted  by  the 
President  by  endorsing  on  his  papers  "appointed  colonel.  May  II, 
1861  ;"  and  subsequently  the  Secretary  of  War  stipulated  with  the 
affiant  for  raising  a  regiment,  and,  if  practicable,  a  brigade  of  two 
regiments,  of  persons  of  foreign  birth,  for  the  affiant's  own  command, 
to  be  enlisted  for  the  war,  allowing  the  affiant  to  accept  also  the  ser- 
vices of  such  natives  as  would  desire  to  serve  under  his  command. 
That  it  was  understood,  at  the  time  of  that  stipulation,  betsveen  the 
Secretary  of  War  and  che  affiant  that  his  commission  was  to  be  issued 
after  the  troops  were  raised:  of  colonel  should  he  raise  one  regiment, 
and  of  brigadier  general  should  he  raise  a  brigade.  That  the  affiant 
relying,  bona  fide,  upon  that  agreement,  accepted  the  authority  to  raise 
these  troops,  and  did  raise  a  brigade  of  one  thousand  seven  hundred 
men  strong  in  the  ranks,  exclusive  of  the  officers;  in  which  there 
were  one  thousand  four  hundred  and  fifteen  persons  of  foreign  birth 
in  the  ranks,  and  four  amongst  the  officers.  That  in  raising  these 
troops,  the  affiant  incurred  considerable  expenses ;  in  employing 
agents  to  procure  the  men  and  raise  f^ompanies  ;  in  extending  hospital- 
ities to  those  friends  who  assisted  him  in  this  undertaking;  in  distri- 
buting small  sums  for  tobacco,  &c.,  amongst  some  of  the  enlisted  men  ; 
for  his  OAvn  support  and  other  expenditures  usually  connected  with 
such  undertaldngs.  But  the  affiant  saith ;  that  considering  the 
expected  regular  commission  of  brigadier  general  and  the  stipends 
and  commutation  which  the  law  attaches  to  it,  to  be  his  legitimate 
consideration  for  his  services  and  those  disbursements;  and,  therefore, 
never  expecting  to  have  a  liquidation  with  the  Government  for  their 
return,  he  did  not  keep  any  account  of  these  expenses  or  disburse- 


S9 

ments ;  he  is  not,  therefore,  prepared  to  specify  them  by  items  and 
support  by  vouchers.  But  the  athant  affirms  that  their  gross  amount 
makes  the  sum  of  five  thousand  nine  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars 
($5,92.'i)  in  gold  and  other  currency  of  equal  value,  and  sixteen  hun- 
dred dollars  ($16(il))  in  the  currency  of  the  Confederate  States,  not 
counting,  or  including,  the  heavy  losses  in  property  which  the  affiant 
left  in  the  United  States — such  as  arise  from  the  separation  from  his 
family  for  nearly  three  years — and  from  the  abandonment  of  his 
clicntel ;  for  which  losses  the  affiant  claims  nothing,  considering  them 
as  the  result  of  the  ordinary  incidents  of  the  war.  The  affiant 
further  saith  :  that  he  considers  himself  to  be  legally  entitled,  only^ 
to  the  salary  and  commutation  attached  to  brigadier's  commission, 
which  he  be/lioves  and  avors  is  withholden  from  him  in  violation'of  the 
contract  the  Secretary  of  War  stipulated  for  with  him.  But  the  affiant 
waives  his  right  to  such  salary  and  commutation,  should  Congress 
prefer  to  refund  him  his  above  stated  expenses  in  such  cuirency  as 
he  bore  and  paid  them.  And  for  this  purpose  he  has  made  this  affi- 
davit, at  the  request  of  the  Committee  on  Claims  of  the  House  of 
Representaiives,  before  which  his  case  for  the  recovery  either  of  brig- 
adier's salary  and  commutation,  or  of  his  expenses,  is   now   pending. 

G.  TOCIIMAN. 

Sworn  to  and  subscribed   before  me,  at  Richmond,  Virginia,  this 
29th  day  qf  January,  1864. 

J.  S.    WILLIAMS,  Notary  Public. 

Filed  with  the  Committee,  January  29,  1864. 


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